Aminata Diallo has been brought in again by police in relation to the November attack on Kheira Hamraoui
© Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images © Getty Images
Ex-Paris Saint German star Aminata Diallo has been re-arrested by French police investigating the attack on her former teammate Kheira Hamraoui last November.
As was well-publicized at the time, Hamraoui was allegedly dragged out of a vehicle – of which Diallo was behind the wheel – by two masked men and then hit on the legs with an iron bar as part of a targeted attack following a team meal.
The two women were positional rivals in the PSG midfield.
Diallo was arrested after the incident but was later released without being charged while denying any involvement.
On Friday, however, the prosecutor’s office in Versailles confirmed that Diallo is being investigated once more on charges of serious bodily harm and is in temporary police custody while awaiting a court hearing about her pretrial detention.
Additionally, four men have been placed under investigation for their alleged links to the incident.
“All four alleged Diallo was the instigator of the assault, in order to allow her to be given the place of the victim [in the PSG team] in future games,” explained the prosecutor’s office.
Following the attack, 32-year-old Hamraoui required hospital treatment and stitches in both her arms and legs.
pic.twitter.com/LfC1pbuFA1
— Kheira Hamraoui (@kheirahamraoui) September 17, 2022
“I will never forget that evening of 4 November 2021. It haunts me night and day,” Hamraoui wrote on Twitter on Saturday while sharing pictures of her injuries.
“That dark evening that turned my personal and professional life upside down, my life as a woman and a footballer. That sad evening when I thought I was going to die when two hooded men forced me out of a car. They beat me up with an iron bar, aiming mainly at my lower body.
“That night, their objective was simple: to use extreme violence to remove my work tool by breaking my legs and ending my career,” Hamraoui went on.
“Following this traumatic experience, which turned into an absolute injustice, I was the victim of a surprising media cabal with the aim of smearing my image and my private life. The aim was to distract public opinion from the truth: I am a victim. I am certainly not guilty, except for the fact that I have remained silent (…). And of having allowed a media buzz to develop,” she then finished.
Though currently under contract with the French giants, Hamraoui has not featured for PSG this season, while Diallo left at the end of last term upon expiry of her contract and subsequently retired from the sport.
When Diallo was initially released in November, attention turned to former FC Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal’s now ex-wife Hayet Abidal, who was accused of hiring the men.
This was due to an alleged affair that Abidal had with Hamraoui, after which Hayet Abidal swiftly filed for divorce from her ex-husband, as threatened in a press release offered to the AFP.
Hayet Abidal said that Eric Abidal had admitted to an “adulterous relationship with Ms. Hamraoui” and further claimed through her lawyer that she had “nothing to do with the events.”
