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30 Oct, 2021 11:25

‘Falsehoods’: France star Hernandez’s lawyer reveals ‘ordeal’ after footballer avoids prison term for disobeying restraining order

‘Falsehoods’: France star Hernandez’s lawyer reveals ‘ordeal’ after footballer avoids prison term for disobeying restraining order

The lawyer of France and Bayern Munich star Lucas Hernandez has described the 'ordeal' his client has been through after initially receiving a six-month prison sentence for violating a restraining order.

The 2018 World Cup winner was ordered to report to a Madrid court four years after being arrested for a violent domestic incident with his then-girlfriend – and now wife – Amelia Ossa Llorente.

Llorente received hospital treatment for minor injuries stemming from the fracas. Neither Hernandez nor his partner requested charges to be pressed, yet the court imposed a six-month restraining order forbidding the couple from seeing one another.

Later, however, the pair were seen heading back to Spain upon getting married, and they violated the order when traveling to the United States together on their honeymoon.

While Llorente was handed 31 days' community service for violence, assault and damage to property, Hernandez receivd a six-month sentence in December 2019 for violating the terms of the restraining order.

For his latest step out of line, Hernandez was given ten days to report to a jail of his choosing and finally serve his stretch.

Winning an appeal this week, though, the sentence was overturned in place of a €96,000 ($111,000) fine just a day before Hernandez was set to turn himself in, with the court noting that the couple have been living together with their son without further incident.

Reacting to the news, Hernandez's, lawyer Mauricio Gonzalez, claimed that the truth has been misrepresented.

"It seems surprising to me that it stands out Lucas has avoided prison, because the headline should be that the Provincial Court has clearly revoked an unfair resolution against my client that implied his imprisonment," Gonzalez told Marca.

"We have kept silent in the face of all the comments, but the truth of the procedure has not been handled [well].

"The first falsehood is that Lucas has not served the sentence imposed, and that is false because his sentence of 31 days for the benefit of the community was served by collaborating with an association back in 2017. That sentence is not recorded today, that sentence is erased [from his] criminal record," continued Gonzalez.

"The second falsehood is that Lucas Hernandez has two convictions for gender violence and that has never happened. It was a specific incident that occurred when he was 21 years old. Personally, he has matured and [it] has not happened again. "

"It is being said that this has been resolved urgently because it is Lucas Hernandez and that is not true either," Gonzalez wanted to clear up, after accusations of preferential treatment.

"The judge's order was on August 5 and our appeal took place on August 9, and it is now that the Provincial Court has issued its resolution. The unusual thing about all this is that the judge was on vacation and it took us [a long time] to get out of this case all these months. It has been an ordeal," he described.

Gonzalez believes that the judge's decision could have ended the career of his client, who won the Champions League with Bayern in 2020 and remains an integral part of the Bleus set up.

"It had to be done urgently because it entailed a deprivation of liberty for my client," said Gonzalez. "We have had to lodge complaints with the General Council of the Judiciary and before the Provincial Court to resolve and thus avoid unjust imprisonment.

"It could have happened that Lucas entered prison and then, six months later, the Court, as has been the case, ruled against [it]. That passage through the prison would have destroyed Lucas's professional career and also his personal one. 

"For this reason, the suspension of the sentence was justified as an emergency by the three magistrates of Section 26 of the Provincial Court one day before the entry into prison decreed by the judge.

"Lucas was the creditor of the benefit of the suspension of the sentence. There is no civil liability, there is no victim, as he was wanted for the media to exploit, because his wife has been his main support.

"Amelia has never denounced him. She asked for acquittal in the sentence of six months and, what is more, in the appearance on October 18, he asked the Court to apply a criterion of prudence while waiting for the Provincial Court. But he could not even enter the room because his honor did not agree.

"We did not understand anything. Lucas is an elite footballer, he is a mature person.

"And with his wife Amelia at home, he has a child. [She] is pregnant [again] and [he] is her most unconditional support from then until now."

"The Provincial Court has given us reason, and there is no longer any recourse.

"We want to close this chapter after avoiding the unjust imprisonment of Lucas. His club did not understand anything. The good thing has been the support of Bayern...he has continued playing."

Also on rt.com France and Bayern Munich star Lucas Hernandez sentenced to six months in jail for violating restraining order
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