Spartak midfielder Quincy Promes, against whom two criminal cases have been opened in the Netherlands, on Monday, June 19, learned the verdict on one of them. A court in Amsterdam sentenced a football player to 18 months in prison for assaulting a cousin. Also, the midfielder is obliged to pay the victim € 7 thousand in compensation.

The incident for which the winger was punished occurred in July 2020 during his cousin's birthday party. It ended in a fight because Quincy accused his cousin of stealing a necklace worth €3,<> from his aunt. During the conflict, Promes, then playing for Ajax, wounded a relative with a knife in the knee and injured his tendon. He still cannot fully recover from the injury.

At the same time, the victim turned to law enforcement agencies only four months after the attack. He explained this by the fact that the parties initially wanted to resolve everything peacefully, but it seems that they could not agree. As a result, the prosecutor's office brought formal charges against Promes with grievous bodily harm and attempted murder, demanding that he be imprisoned for two years.

The accusation was primarily based on the midfielder's telephone conversations, which were tapped by the police, as he is also suspected of involvement in drug trafficking. In them, Quincy told family members that he really wanted to punch his brother in the neck.

However, according to the court, Promes uttered these words on emotions. At the same time, the athlete during the fight did not point a cold weapon at vital organs (none of the witnesses confirmed this), so the incident was eventually qualified as an attack on a person with aggravating circumstances, and not as an attempted murder.

The sentence could have been commuted by six months if the player had repented of what he had done and expressed his willingness to take responsibility for his actions. But Quincy did not do this, moreover, he was not at any court session, explaining the absence of contractual obligations to Spartak.

Meanwhile, the midfielder's lawyer Robert Malevich announced his intention to appeal the decision of the Amsterdam court, which has not yet officially entered into force.

"Promes will ask for the verdict to be overturned. Then the High Court of the city will again consider the whole case. After that, if necessary, my client will also have the opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court with a cassation appeal. So far, no final and binding decision has been made, "TASS quoted the lawyer as saying.

However, the athlete in any case will not be able to fly to the Netherlands in the near future, as he is accused of another, no less serious crime - drug smuggling. This story also began in 2020, but in Belgium. The Antwerp police intercepted two consignments of cocaine with a total weight of about 1370 kg, in which, according to investigators, Promes allegedly invested.

At the end of last year, Spartak sent a letter to the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, in which it asked for assistance to Promes in obtaining Russian citizenship, but the department refused the club just because of the criminal cases instituted against the athlete.

According to lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky, who worked with striker Alexander Kokorin, this was the only way to protect Quincy from imprisonment.

"Obtaining citizenship gives 100% guarantees to a person that he will not be extradited. Russia does not extradite its citizens," Dobrovinsky told Sport-Express.

At the same time, according to lawyers, no one will extradite Promes to the Netherlands, since the Russian Federation has not concluded relevant agreements with this country. This is possible only in the case of a special request - at the discretion of the relevant authorities.

So, if Quincy does not leave Russia, as he did in the winter (the midfielder did not travel with Spartak to foreign training camps, but trained in Moscow according to an individual program), he will definitely not face imprisonment in the near future.

There is no reaction to the situation on the part of the Russian authorities yet, and opinions in the expert community at the moment differ. So, the Olympic champion and State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova believes that even a famous football player must be punished for the crime committed.

"Should Promes be deported? Here is the question of Interpol, it is difficult to deport when there are no legal grounds. And when there is a request, our Interpol will make a decision ... Of course, this is a reputational blow for Russia. When guilt is proven, it is an ambiguous attitude. As Gleb Zheglov said, the criminal should be in prison. If guilt is proven, the reaction for everyone should be the same, "RB Sport quotes Zhurova as saying.

In addition, according to the Olympic champion, for the sake of Promes it is not necessary to make exceptions in the law and give him citizenship. At the same time, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, Dmitry Svishchev, did not rule out that the verdict could be related to politics.

"If it were peacetime, the outcome of the case would be different. I think the bias of the Dutch court because of Spartak can play a role here. In this situation, the club can provide qualified assistance to its player. They have strong lawyers, they will help. Promes can now be an instrument of political pressure on football in Russia. We cannot allow pressure on our clubs through it. We need to make sure that the accusations have evidence and real motives," Sport24 quoted the official as saying.

In the meantime, Spartak continues to support its leader, although his crimes in his homeland are much more serious than the stormy night of Pavel Mamayev and Alexander Kokorin in 2018, after which both ended up behind bars.

"Krasnodar" then, even before the guilty verdict, abandoned its player. Zenit, on the other hand, preferred to act differently, giving Kokorin on loan to Sochi, but the striker never played for the club from St. Petersburg again. Reputation for the blue-white-blue turned out to be more important. And the fans would definitely not appreciate his return to the Gazprom Arena.

It would seem that the situation with Promes is on a par with the events of five years ago. However, paradoxically, the attitude towards it is completely different. If in the case of Kokorin and Mamaev, everyone spoke unequivocally, now many veterans of Spartak support the club's decision not to part with the player and even believe that it is necessary to fight for him.

At the same time, according to the ex-owner of the red-and-whites Andrei Chervichenko, you can even benefit from the current situation by forcing Quincy to extend the contract on less favorable terms than he has now. Still, the footballer is already 31 years old, and now he has almost nowhere to leave Russia.

"Now is the first term, and not far off is the second on drugs. Why get rid of it? "Spartak" can strangle Promes under the conditions - now it will not go anywhere. It will go to any reduction. But here, as in Spartak, they will want to, "the Championship quotes Chervichenko as saying.

At the same time, according to the portal Metaratings, the selection department of the red-and-whites nevertheless began searching for a winger for a possible replacement for the Dutchman if judicial problems cannot be resolved.