Netherlands's Promes faces trial for cocaine scandal

The 31-year-old Spartak Moscow player is accused, along with another 31-year-old Dutchman, of importing "several hundred kilos" of cocaine in January 2020, notably through the port of Antwerp, in Belgium, the public prosecutor's office told AFP. The preliminary hearing will take place on June 5, local media reported. 

The player will not be present because of contractual obligations with his club, Dutch news agency ANP reported. The Russian Premier League season ends on Saturday. In March, the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office requested a two-year prison sentence for Promes for aggravated assault after he injured a cousin in the knee with a knife during a fight after a family reunion in Abcoude, near Amsterdam, in July 2020.

Promes was initially charged with attempted murder, but after interviewing witnesses, the public prosecutor concluded that there was no evidence to establish that his aim was to kill the victim. The Amsterdam-born Dutch international was playing for Ajax at the time of the incident.

He returned to Spartak Moscow in early 2021, where he had already played four seasons from 2014 to 2018. He has also had spells at Sevilla and at Twente. Promes has won 50 international caps, the last of them coming off the bench as the Netherlands were eliminated by the Czech Republic in the last 16 in Euro 2020. He has not been selected since.