A Ghanaian footballer, Kwame Bonsu, who plays in Sweden’s second division has been sentenced by a Swedish court on Friday to two years in prison for raping and beating his wife.
After serving his sentence, 22-year-old footballer, who played for the Gefle IF club, will be expelled from the Scandinavian country where he has lived in since 2013, the Gavle District Court said.
Gefle on Friday said Bonsu was dismissed from the team with immediate effect. He will also have to pay 245,000 kronor (at least 25,000 euros, $28,000) in compensation to his wife, who is a Swedish national.
He first met her in 2014, when he was playing in the southern Swedish city of Mjolby. They married the following year. A few months after the wedding he signed a transfer to the town of Gavle, located about 300 kilometres (190 miles) away from Mjolby.
Bonsu’s wife had wanted him to stay to continue his studies. The victim said the rape and beatings took place in the couple’s apartment during an evening in November 2015 when he had refused to let her out.
Bonsu repeatedly denied the charges, but testimony from his wife’s relatives led the court to believe the victim’s version of events.