Manchester United's Harry Maguire Maintains Innocence Following Guilty Verdict: 'I Did Nothing Wrong'

Manchester United star captain Harry Maguire continues to maintain his innocence despite the guilty verdict pressed against him by a court in Greece after he figured in an altercation with police officers in Mykonos.

Speaking for the first time since the trial, a rather emotional Maguire insisted that there is no reason for him to issue an apology as he bared his personal account of the incident, in which he believed they were being kidnapped and harassed.

“I don’t feel I owe an apology to anybody. An apology is something when you have done something wrong,” Maguire said on BBC News at Ten, via the Guardian. “I regret putting the fans and club through this, but I did nothing wrong.

“It was horrible, not something I would want to do again. I don’t wish it on anybody. It’s the first time I’ve been inside a prison.”

Maguire was urged to apologize by prosecution lawyer, Ioannis Paradissis, who said that owning up to the act could do a favor in the defendant’s bid to overturn the sentence.

“The charges of resisting arrest and repeated bribery attempts could not be dropped under Greek law. But verbal assault and physical assault could, I believe,” Paradissis said. “It is by no means certain but theoretically the decision could be a very different one if Maguire was man enough and did what he should have done all along and apologized.”

The 27-year-old esteemed defender was slapped with a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days as he was convicted of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and repeated attempts of bribery.

His brother, Joe, and friend, Christopher Sharman, have also been found guilty of their distinct charges as both were also involved in the commotion with the officers.

An appeal was filed by Maguire’s legal team on Wednesday after they had deemed the decision as “wrong and misleading.”

Manchester United then revealed that the appeal was accepted and that a retrial will be scheduled at a higher court.

“(The acceptance of the appeal) means that Harry has no criminal record and is once again presumed innocent until proven guilty. Accordingly, he is not subject to any international travel restrictions,” the club said.