Prosecutor: UConn soccer player arrested in sexual assault
A member of the University of Connecticut men’s soccer team accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student at knifepoint has been arrested by the FBI in New York, authorities said Tuesday.
An FBI task force took 21-year-old Ziyad Fekri into custody Monday after an investigation by the University of Connecticut Police Department and Tolland State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky’s office, the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice said in a statement.
Fekri, a member of the UConn men’s soccer team from Morocco, already faces domestic violence charges of assault, first-degree unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct in connection with a Feb. 13 incident, authorities said.
He has not entered a plea in those charges, and is due in court on April 6.
John Ritson, Fekri’s Simsbury-based attorney, said he is working to get his client back to Connecticut “as soon as possible” to face the second set of charges. Fekri intends to plead not guilty.
“He fully contests the charges,” Ritson said when reached by phone Tuesday.
Ritson said New York Judge Anne Minihan accepted Fekri’s waiver of extradition. Fekri is being held in the Westchester County jail, Ritson said. He said his client will be arraigned the morning after UConn police transport him back to Connecticut, but it remains uncertain when that will happen.
He said Fekri is a graduate student on a full scholarship attending UConn on a student visa.
“Fekri was immediately suspended from all team activities following the report and first arrest,” authorities said Tuesday.
Stephanie Reitz, a spokeswoman for UConn, said Fekri is enrolled as a student, but was suspended from soccer team activities when he was arrested in February. She said he is not living in campus housing nor taking classes in person.
Reitz declined to say whether the university has begun to conduct a review process, citing federal student privacy laws.
“UConn can take interim steps during the disciplinary process to restrict a student's participation in campus life and activities, including prohibiting a person from UConn property,” she said.
The Tolland state’s attorney’s office said a female student reported the alleged assault on Feb. 15. Fekri was arrested and released from custody after posting a $75,000 bond on the initial charges.
UConn police continued their investigation into the assault and determined “Fekri was responsible for a number of violent assaults over the course of a monthlong time period against the victim,” the state’s attorney’s office said.
“The assaults escalated as time progressed and included pulling of hair, grabbing the victim from behind around the neck, punching her in the face with closed fists, cutting the victim with a knife and two sexual assaults at knifepoint,” the release said.
Witnesses provided sworn written statements, leading UConn police to obtain an arrest warrant on Friday.
The warrant charges Fekri with two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault as well as another single count of unlawful restraint.
After Fekri could not be found in university housing, police determined he was staying with friends in Elmsford, N.Y., authorities said.
The FBI identified the home where he was staying and Fekri was taken into custody “without incident,” the Tolland State’s Attorney’s Office said.
He was charged as a fugitive from justice in Greenburgh, N.Y.
UConn police are awaiting his extradition to Connecticut, where he will face charges in state Superior Court in the Rockville section of Vernon.