Rabat – Hassan Saada, the Moroccan boxer charged with having committed sexual assault in the Olympic village of Rio de Janeiro, was able to leave Brazil Friday after Brazilian authorities returned his passport. He arrived in Casablanca on Saturday morning.
After rejecting several previous requests, the Brazilian court has allowed boxer Hassan Saada to return to Morocco pending his trial. Saada’s case had been all but forgotten, so much so that his appearance before the Brazilian court revealed no tangible elements.
After 10 months of incarceration followed by house arrest in Rio de Janeiro, the judge of the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro returned Saada’s passport and authorized him to leave the country and return to Morocco.
Initially deprived of his travel document and forced to remain in Brazil, the Moroccan boxer was finally able to return to Morocco.
Saada was released without any bond by the Brazilian judge, said Ben Abdennebi, secretary general of the National Olympic Committee of Morocco (CNOM), who expressed, in passing, his surprise at the decision. He added that the Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation (FRMB) had asked the judge to authorize Hassan Saada to participate in the African Boxing Championship by proposing to pay bail and provide a guarantee of appearance.
The 22-year-old Moroccan boxer, originally from Casablanca, was arrested on August 5 for sexual assault on two housekeepers in the Olympic Village a few hours before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Games. He was initially placed in pretrial detention for 15 days before being released pending trial.
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