MHR international rugby player Mohamed Haouas will oppose on Tuesday 4 February the three-month prison sentence for drunk driving that the Montpellier prosecutor's office should propose to him as part of a “guilty plea” procedure, his lawyer indicated on Monday 3 February.
“The prosecutor's office is proposing a three-month prison sentence, accompanied by a road safety awareness course and a six-month driving licence suspension”, Marc Gallix told AFP, after receiving the written indictment from the prosecution in this procedure of appearance on prior admission of guilt (CRPC).
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“If it is maintained, I will refuse this proposal and we will go and explain ourselves before the criminal court”, he added. Mohamed Haouas, suspended by his club in December, is ready to accept a fine, but not a prison sentence that would compromise his return to the Top-14, according to the lawyer.
“He had parked and fallen asleep”
Asked by AFP, the Montpellier prosecutor, Fabrice Belargent, indicated that he would never “communicate on (his) requisitions and proposed sentences to come”.
Haouas (16 selections) had been arrested and placed in police custody at the beginning of December in Montpellier for driving under the influence drunk.
“Feeling unable to drive, he had parked and fallen asleep”, according to Mr. Gallix. The car was parked in a double line and the driver did not react, passers-by had broken the window, before the police arrived.
The player is expected in the prosecutor's office Tuesday morning to be officially informed of the prosecution's proposal. He and his lawyer will either be able to accept it, and then appear before a judge who will approve it, or not, or refuse it, opening the way to a trial before the criminal court.
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The former international returned to his training club this summer after a season at Biarritz (Pro D2), with the condition “exemplary behavior”.
Before his departure In the Basque Country, he had already been sentenced to one year in prison for hitting his wife and to 18 months in prison, nine of which were firm, for “aggravated violence” during a fight in Montpellier on January 1, 2014. Haouas appealed this latest decision. The player had also been sentenced in 2022 to 18 months in prison, suspended, for burglaries of tobacco shops in 2014.