Rugby player Mohamed Haouas, ex-player of Montpellier and the XV of France, was sentenced on Friday June 30 to eighteen months in prison, nine of which are closed, for “aggravated violence”.
This is a separate case from the one for which he was sentenced on May 30 to one year in prison (for violence committed against his wife). The facts with which he was charged in this new decision date back to January 1, 2014, when he participated, under the influence of alcohol, in a violent fight in a bakery. A brawl had opposed him and a dozen friends to the boss of a nightclub.
This new conviction of the pillar makes possible an incarceration of the player, according to his lawyer, Marc Gallix. The decision in itself “is not severe”, because “we can see that he is the most virulent of all, that he deals very violent blows” during this fight, admitted Me Gallix. “But the sentences are only flexible up to one year in prison. If we add today’s firm nine months to the twelve months for domestic violence, if I do not appeal and the sentence becomes final, he is imprisoned, “continued the player’s lawyer, absent at the hearing on Friday.
Marc Gallix has therefore announced his intention to appeal so that his client can first serve his twelve-month prison sentence in an adjusted form while the Court of Appeal renders its conclusions.
Mohamed Haouas and his lawyer spoke on Monday with the sentencing judge, who must decide in the fall on the form of his conviction for domestic violence. He could be forced to wear an electronic bracelet or be placed on “parental parole”, according to his lawyer, Mohamed Haouas being the father of two young children and a breadwinner.
This second option, probably accompanied by psychological follow-up and an awareness course on domestic violence, is “preferable” to that involving the wearing of an electronic bracelet, because it would allow the 29-year-old player to “exercise his profession,” explained Mr. Gallix.
The rest of his very uncertain career
The career of Mohamed Houas is precisely uncertain, even if he won a first legal victory on Monday, June 26. The industrial tribunal has, in fact, dismissed, in summary proceedings, the ASM Clermont Auvergne club of its request to suspend the employment contract of the pillar, who had been recruited by the Auvergne club before the acts of violence against his wife and was due to join the team on July 1.
At the hearing, the club’s lawyer claimed that ASM had been “deceived” by the player and the Montpellier club: “This is not the profile we hired”, while Mr. Haouas the duty to “respect the criteria of ethics and deontology of French rugby”. Mohamed Haouas is “not a product but a rugby player” who “we want to prohibit from working and feeding his family”, replied the advice of Mohamed Haouas. On this subject, a hearing on the merits must take place in September.
Following the violent attack on his wife, Mohamed Haouas had not been summoned by the coach of the France team, Fabien Galthié, for the World Cup which begins in France in September.
