The Manchester City defender had been in pre-trial detention since the end of August.
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Benjamin Mendy will be released from prison while awaiting trial. The French international, targeted by seven counts of rape on four women and one count of sexual assault on a fifth, was released on bail Friday, January 7, by the court in Chester (United Kingdom ). The 27-year-old defender, under contract with the Manchester City team, had been in pre-trial detention since the end of August. He was placed under judicial supervision.
Benjamin Mendy will therefore be able to leave Manchester prison, pending his trial, postponed to the summer (June 27 or August 1) when he was initially scheduled for January 24. However, another preliminary hearing was held on that date, where his release will be reviewed. The maximum penalty he faces, if he pleads not guilty, is life imprisonment.
Trained in Le Havre, revealed in Marseille and spent a season with Monaco, Mendy had become the most expensive defender in history in 2017 when the Citizens had spent 52 million pounds (about 60 million euros) to tie up his services. When he arrived at City, where he had a year and a half left on his contract, he was considered one of the great French and world hopes as left-back. But the career of the 27-year-old player has been hampered for four years by injuries, before being so by the facts with which he is accused.