France prop Mohamed Haouas has been handed a one-year jail sentence for domestic abuse. The 29-year-old was arrested on Friday afternoon after being seen hitting his wife near a popular shopping centre in in Hérault, France.
‘I said to myself that if she can lie about the cigarette, she could lie about other things. I imagined things, I got jealous. I got mad, and I lost control,’ he said. Haouas remained in custody since the incident before receiving a fast-tracked court hearing on Tuesday, where he was given a guilty verdict.
Reports claim that a dispute arose between the two after he’d spotted his wife smoking a cigarette, despite her telling Haouas that she’d stopped. The Montpellier player attempted to explain his actions and claimed: ‘She has the right to smoke but the problem is that she lied to me.
In response to the incident, France’s rugby federation said that Haouas’ actions were ‘inadmissible and incompatible with representing our country at international level’. In addition, the 29-year-old’s potential summer move from Montpellier to Clermont which had been agreed has now been cancelled.
The France international has had similarly controversial actions occur on the pitch, such as his four weeks ban for headbutting Scotland’s Ben White in the Six Nations. And, last year, Haouas was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for his role in a series of burglaries in 2014.
Clermont released a statement that condemned Haouas’ actions and insisted he ‘put himself in total opposition with our identity’ and ‘will not be able to wear our colours on the pitch’. The 29-year-old has made 16 appearances for France but could may well have ended his chances of adding to that with his actions off the pitch.
