Sochaux: Sambou Yatabaré in prison since mid-January
Sochaux's Mali international Sambou Yatabaré was sentenced on 4 January over violence against a police officer.
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Sambou Yatabaré has been languishing in prison since mid-January. According to information relayed by L’Equipe, the Mali international (33), who joined Sochaux this summer from Valenciennes, was arrested on his way to training.
The player has since been held at the remand prison in Besançon. According to the same source, Sambou Yatabaré was sentenced on 4 January by the criminal court in Bobigny over violence dating back to 2017. At the time he had a heated altercation with an off-duty PAF police officer, as Le Point had revealed.
Sambou Yatabaré had punched the officer in the face. The officer, brandishing his weapon, had reproached him for his driving on the motorway as he was heading to the airport.
The midfielder's lawyer, Amar Bouaou, condemned in the pages of L’Equipe a sentence he called “incomprehensible”, given the nature of the offences, which were very old and fiercely disputed by his client.
Sambou Yatabaré had moved house before the trial and apparently failed to declare his change of address. His court summons was sent to an old email address of his lawyer's, which had been hacked and was no longer in use.
“This series of events meant we were not aware of this trial, which my client therefore did not attend,” said Bouaou, quoted by the French outlet. An application for release has already been filed. A new trial is due to be held in the spring.