{"id":61773,"date":"2025-09-17T22:13:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:43:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:43:50","slug":"thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Partey Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Ghanaian international midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault after appearing in court just a day after playing for his new club.<\/p>\n<p>Partey, 32, confirmed his full name and date of birth during the proceedings before entering not guilty pleas to all six charges brought against him.<\/p>\n<p>At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Christopher Hehir addressed the Villareal midfielder, explaining that the trial date had been set for November 2, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour trial will take place at this court on November 2 of next year, 2026. I appreciate that is quite a long way in advance,\u201d Judge Hehir told Partey. \u201cAs you may appreciate, the crown courts have a huge backlog of work which means that trials do take a long time to come on. Because you have bail, effectively you are sitting behind a queue of people in prison who are waiting to be tried.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Partey was granted bail and will remain free under the set conditions until the trial begins.<\/p>\n<p>The case is set to attract significant attention both in England and Ghana, where Partey remains a key figure for the national team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Ghanaian international midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault after appearing in court just a day after playing for his new club. Partey, 32, confirmed his full name and date of birth during the proceedings before entering not guilty pleas to all six charges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-61773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thomas Partey Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ghanaian international midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault aft ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thomas Partey Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ghanaian international midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault aft ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T22:13:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T22:43:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758132762.192094.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Thomas Partey Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-17T22:13:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T22:43:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\"},\"wordCount\":209,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758132762.192094.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thomas-partey-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges\",\"name\":\"Thomas Partey Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges - 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