BAYERN MUNICH defender Lucas Hernandez will not go to a Spanish jail for violating a restraining order in 2017 after a Madrid court on Wednesday accepted an appeal by the French player.
“We consider that the appeal should be upheld and the order to enter prison suspended,” the court said in a statement.
The suspension of the sentence will be for a period of four years as long as Hernandez does not commit any further crime and the payment of a fine of €96,000, the court said.
Hernandez, a World Cup winner with France in 2018, was arrested four years ago in Spain for violating a court order banning him from contacting his partner after a violent altercation between the pair.
He and his partner, Amelia Lorente, were both convicted of domestic violence in February 2017.
She hit and scratched Hernandez, while the player hit her in the ribs, back and face, according to the court ruling at the time.
Neither made a complaint against the other, but both were charged by Spain’s public prosecutor.
The then-Atletico Madrid player and his girlfriend were each sentenced to 31 days of community service. They were also ordered not to see each other for six months.
Four months later though, Hernandez was arrested at a Madrid airport.
He was in the company of Lorente, who was not arrested as her own restraining order had not yet been formally served. They were returning to Spain after marrying in the United States. The couple have since had a son.
Hernandez was sentenced in 2019 to six months in prison, a sentence he had appealed. It was the rejection of this appeal, on the grounds that he was a repeat offender, that led to this summons before a court in Madrid.
The court said Wednesday it had accepted Hernandez’s appeal based on his current family situation and the low probability that he would commit a crime again.
“It cannot be ignored that the person who he was not supposed to approach consented to be approached,” the court said in a reference to Lorente.
The court also pointed out that Hernandez lives with Lorente and their son and “there have been no new incidents between the couple.”
“There are no records of him having committed any new crimes, which can be taken into account to conclude that it is not necessary for the sentence to be carried out to prevent him from committing another crime,” the court added.
Hernandez became the most expensive player in Bundesliga history when he joined Bayern from Atletico in 2019 for €80 million.
Bayern currently sit at the top of the Bundesliga and are the top of Group E in the Champions League.
First Henshaw now Carty great to see some Athlone lads starting to make a breakthrough
Best of luck to Jack Carthy, great to see Connacht fielding a young, all Irish back line.
Would love to see Jordi have a great game at 7 and get into 6 nations contention to fill the gap left by SOB. Will also be keeping a close eye on Henry and Tommy O’ D tonight
C’mon Connacht.
Exciting game ahead. Leinster will be scratching after last yrs result but Connacht will meet ye more than half way!!!!
FYI. You have only listed 14 starting players for Leinster. Devon Toner has become a one-man machine in the second row…
Scratch that, you have added Tom Denton.
I have. He just about caught the bus. Cheers.
Tom Denton catching something? What’s seldom is wonderful
Kirchner on the wing, hopefully he’ll spark some exciting back plays.
Murphy at 7 puts even more pressure on Henry and o’donnell
He’s only back from injury but I really liked the work rate and professionalism of o donnell last year! I think at the moment if have him and murphy ahead of Henry in the long run
I’d rather go to a funeral than watch a rugby match
In that case shouldn’t you read an obituary column instead of an article on rugby?
Paulie I’d say you depress everyone at a funeral
Give it to him Lizzy!
Right in his Walnuts!
Haha, if I thought he had some Robby I would but my guess is he’s all mouth and no trousers ;)
Nicely put Elizabeth, well said!
There something wrong in the system when the IRFU won’t give the appropriate funds to a team who funds an all irish backline but prefers to spend money on big name signings to boost another provinces profile. Then they are wondering why they are not unearthing players to fill the roles of the retiring legends of the last few years? Connacht could be a good conveyor belt for Ireland in areas that are been missed, just look at Athlone.
Both Munster and Leinster are producing massive amounts of Irish players and ulster have brought some through too. To say spending money on overseas players is a waste is just wrong.
Players like Isa and rocky done so much for Leinster
As did dougie and him Williams for Munster and all these young ulster backs
I assume you’re referring to the same Connacht who are the only province not restricted by the IRFU’s stringent new rules on overseas recruitment & who boast more overseas players in their squad than any other province? Change the record. We’ve all heard this tune before
Del. We have relatively few non-Irish players and more and more of our squad is IQ. In face more and more of our squad is Connacht academy.
The reason why Connacht is not bound by the overseas rule is because the IRFU implicitly want Connacht to be a development province. They are not explicit about it because it annoys everyone here but that is the reason. Hence Connacht IQ players can be moved to other provinces and they are told to shop abroad.
The first example of this was Macca. Granted Connacht did well to bring Clarke in, but it will not always work out that like.
Personally I would much prefer Connacht to be properly funded and have the same rules apply to us as the rest of the provinces.