Update emerges on QPR’s Ilias Chair with his jail term reduced

An update emerges on QPR’s Ilias Chair with his jail term reduced to community service with a deal reached over his assault conviction.

The 26 year old will now instead just do 150 hours of community service and pay a fine of €1600, after previously being sentenced to a year in prison.

This came having been convicted back in February by a Belgian court of breaking a lorry driver’s skull with a rock. More on that further down in the article.

Club statement: Ilias Chair.

— QPR FC (@QPR) July 17, 2024

QPR said in a statement on the 17th of July 2024: “The club takes note of the decision by the Belgian judiciary concerning our player, Ilias Chair.

“Queens Park Rangers Football Club expects its staff and players to conduct themselves in an exemplary fashion at all times.

“The club will now carry out its own disciplinary procedures, which will include reminding the player of his responsibilities at all times.”

In February, Chair had been given prison sentence and ordered to pay his victim, a truck driver, £13,400 compensation, a two-year prison sentence, with half of it being suspended, after being found guilty of an incident in 2020, for the incident with a truck driver.

It took place in Bazeilles, northern France, with the lorry driver Niels T said to have waited with his family to get a coach back to Belgium having been on a kayak trip back in summer 2020.

A family from East Flanders reached the end of their arduous journey, where buses were prepared to transport the weary and famished tourists back to the starting point.

“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,” the prosecutor said.

“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.”

The organisers of the kayaking trips tried to calm the situation down, only for a massive brawl to break out, which suddenly escalated when a man grabbed a large rock.

That man was later identified by the French police as Ilias Chair of Queens Park Rangers.

“According to several people involved, Ilias Chair lashed out with the stone at Niels T., who immediately lost consciousness,” said the public prosecutor.

“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.”

Chair denied that he was the man who threw the rock. He asked for an acquittal. On Friday morning, he arrived at court for the verdict himself, with a new lawyer.

He had asked to reopen the debates, a request that was rejected by the court.

The professional footballer was sentenced to two years in prison, half of which was effective.

He must pay compensation of 15,684.75 euros to the victim.

Nora H. (the woman with the green bikini, ed.) was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

Ilias’ brother, Jaber, was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence.

QPR said at the time: “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.”

He’s scored 35 times in 236 appearances for the R’s between 2017 and 2024, and also had a brief loan stint at Stevenage where he scored 6 goals in 16 games.