Harry Maguire has received a suspended 15-month sentence after being found guilty of non-serious assault, resisting arrest, and attempted bribery in a retrial held in Greece.
The Manchester United defender did not attend the hearing on the island of Syros, as he is preparing for the team’s match against Newcastle on Wednesday night.
Maguire plans to appeal the verdict to the Greek Supreme Court following a split decision, where one judge ruled him not guilty while the other two judges delivered a guilty verdict.
Reports indicate that Maguire declined several settlement offers, including one for £43,500, both over the weekend and during a recess in Wednesday’s proceedings.
This trial comes nearly six years after Maguire’s arrest during a family vacation in Mykonos in August 2020, for which he initially received a 21-month suspended sentence.
His earlier conviction for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and attempted bribery was automatically nullified upon appeal under Greek law.
The retrial had been postponed no fewer than four times – first in May 2023 because Maguire’s defence counsel was unavailable, then in February 2024 due to the Greek lawyers’ strike, then on two more occasions in March and October last year.
Harry Maguire with his sister Daisy in Mykonos back in 2020 prior to the arrest
Maguire went on to play for England at the last World Cup despite the brawl allegations
There were even doubts that it would take place at all before the statute of limitations took effect after eight years in August 2028.
Maguire, who turns 33 on Thursday, was not required to attend the hearing in person as his lawyers attempted to clear his name.
The player is due to be in United’s squad to face Newcastle at St James’ Park on Wednesday night after recovering from an illness that forced him to go off in the second half of Sunday’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.
The long-running saga began on a summer holiday a year after Maguire joined United in a £80million move from Leicester City.
Maguire’s lawyers claimed that two Albanian men injected his sister Daisy with an unknown substance in a bar on a night out that caused her to faint.
Recalling the incident in an interview with the BBC in 2020, Maguire said: ‘Two men approached my little sister. They asked her where she was from and she responded. My fiancee Fern saw my little sister’s eyes going to the back of her head. She was fainting. She was in and out of consciousness.’
Maguire’s defence team said that when the player and his group of family and friends called for transport to take her to hospital, they were instead driven to a police station where Maguire was assaulted by plain-clothed officers.
Maguire said at the time: ‘My initial thought was we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees. We put our hands in the air. They just started hitting us. They were hitting my legs, saying my career was over. No more football. “You won’t play again”.
‘At this point, I thought there’s no chance. These are police, or I don’t know who they are. So I tried to run away. I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life all the way through it.’
Maguire was seen at the Bonbonniere bar on an Instagram story shared by his sister Daisy
The prosecution argued that Maguire had pushed over a policeman who was trying to handcuff him, causing leg and back injuries, and had also offered to bribe officers – claims Maguire branded ‘ridiculous’. They argued that another policeman was punched by one of the defendants.
Maguire, who spent two nights in custody, said: ‘It was horrible. It’s not something I ever want to do again. It’s the first time I’ve ever been inside a prison, and I don’t wish it on anybody.
‘I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody. An apology is when you’ve done something wrong. Do I regret being in the situation? Obviously, the situation has made it difficult, and I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so I regret putting the fans and the club through this.
‘But I think it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece. I think footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything in the public eye. It’s not how I want to live my life.
‘I have great faith in the Greek law. A retrial will give us more time to gather the evidence, allow witnesses into the court, and I’m really confident that the truth will be told and come out.’
