QPR are in contact with Ilias Chair’s legal team after reports in Belgium stated the winger had been jailed for a year after fracturing a man’s skull.
The charges against Chair are reported to date back to 2020, when he was on a kayaking trip.
Chair was sentenced to a two-year prison term on Friday morning, half of which is suspended, and he must pay €15,000 (£12,800) in compensation to the victim.
However, the 26-year-old has the right to an appeal and is not currently incarcerated. In theory, that means he is available for Saturday’s Championship game against Rotherham should the club choose to select him.
In a statement, QPR announced that they would not be commenting officially on the matter until the full legal proceedings are concluded.
It read: “The club are, and have been, in regular contact with Ilias Chair’s legal team regarding a charge of assault which has been made against him.
“The legal proceeding is yet to reach its conclusion. As such, the club will be making no further comment at this stage.”
It is reported that in the summer of 2020, Chair was on a kayaking trip that started in the Ardennes and ended in Bazeilles, France.
Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad report that the prosecutor said last month: “While queuing to board the bus, the victims were suddenly passed by a lady in a green bikini and her family.
“They passed the group and, as it were, demanded to be the first to get on the bus because they had just missed another bus.
“This led to a discussion with other people who were waiting, including the later victims: Niels T., his sister Eline T. and Dries D.
“The woman in the green bikini behaved very aggressively and things quickly escalated. The woman lashed out at the victims and their children. There was hitting, scratching and biting.”
“According to several people involved, Ilias Chair lashed out with the stone at Niels T., who immediately lost consciousness. The consequences for Niels T. were dramatic. He suffered a serious skull fracture of two centimetres. He was admitted to Reims hospital in critical condition.
“He would then have to recover in a Belgian hospital for a long time. He was unable to work as a truck driver for a long time and to this day he still experiences the consequences of that blow, which almost killed him.”
Het Nieuwsblad report that Chair denied he was the man who threw the rock and asked for an acquittal.
They add that on Friday morning he came to court for the verdict himself, with a new lawyer, and asked to reopen the debates. The request was said to have been rejected by the court.
