The rugby player Mohamed Haouas, one of the pillars of the French team for the next World Cup to be held in the fall, was sentenced this Tuesday to one year in prison for hitting his wife in a shopping center, which raises doubts. of his presence in that competition in autumn.

The Montpellier Correctional Court found him guilty of conjugal violence and imposed a firm but adaptable sentence, so that he will not have to spend 12 months behind bars and on June 26 he is summoned to a hearing with the judge for the application of sentences to set the conditions.

Haouas, who was tried this afternoon by the immediate appearance procedure, had been detained since last Friday, the day of the attack that occurred in front of multiple witnesses and the surveillance cameras of the shopping center.

The athlete tried to justify himself during the hearing by explaining that he saw his wife and the mother of his two children smoke, and that although “he has the right to smoke”, he was angry because he considered that he had deceived him, according to the story of the France Bleu Hérault radio station. .

“I told myself that if he can lie for the cigarette, he can lie for other things,” he added after pointing out that he had acted like this out of jealousy. As for the blows he gave his wife – which she did not want to report and assured that it was the first time she had treated him like this – he minimized them: a “small trip” and a “small slap”.

Although from the court he went back to prison, tonight he will no longer have to sleep in prison. The player, who is 29 years old and has been proclaimed champion of France with his team, Montpellier, had already been sentenced in February 2022 to 18 months in prison exempt from compliance (he would only go to prison in case of recidivism) for some robberies in tobacconists in the city committed in 2014.

He is also awaiting the sentence on June 30 for another process that was held on May 12 in which he is accused of his participation in a violent fight on January 1, 2014. The Prosecutor’s Office then requested a sentence for him two years in prison exempt from compliance.

The French team has not wanted to rule on whether or not Haouas is ruled out for the next World Cup to be held in France, pending the ruling on June 30.