Saad Lamjarred sentenced to six years in prison for rape: back on the case

LAMJARRED. Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred was imprisoned after his six-year prison sentence for rape on Friday (February 24th).

​​​​​​​[Mis à jour le 27 février 2023 à 10h03] Six years in prison: the Paris Assize Court found Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred guilty of hitting and raping Laura P., 20 years old at the time of the events, which took place in 2016. It is therefore the handcuffs that the artist left the court of assizes of Paris, to spend his first night in prison. The judges retained an aggravating circumstance: he was under the influence of alcohol and narcotic substances on the evening of the facts. Saad Lamjarred was however acquitted of the charge of aggravated willful violence and will be registered in the national file of perpetrators of sexual offences.

Lawyers for the 37-year-old artist declined to comment on the verdict of the Paris Assize Court. They have ten days to appeal. The court was convinced by Laura’s version, which was “consistent and precise”, relates RFI. For his part, the singer had said that she was “drunk”, when she does not drink alcohol, and that she had wanted to extract money from him. The complainant’s version agreed with a medical certificate which stated injuries inside the vagina and bodily injuries. Employees of the hotel in which the events took place also testified to having seen the young woman leave “in a state of shock” from Saad Lamjarred’s room. Since then, psychiatric expertise has shown that Laura showed signs of post-traumatic syndrome.

Saad Lamjarred in jail after verdict

To fix the sentence of the Moroccan popstar, several factors were taken into account. Among them, the age difference between Saad Lamjarred and the complainant, the accused’s persistence in denying the facts, the social and professional integration of the singer, as well as his clean criminal record, but also the fact that he had awareness of his actions or the repercussion of the facts on Laura’s life. If Saad Lamjarred was convicted for the rape of Laura, the popstar was acquitted for the voluntary violence, indicates on Twitter the journalist of RFI, Marine de La Moissonnière. Placed under an immediate deposit warrant, the singer was placed in prison on Friday evening February 24. He has 10 days to appeal.

At the end of the verdict, Laura reacted to RFI, notably expressing her relief. “I wanted it to be written victim,” she said. And to add: “I spoke for myself, but also for all the others. I hope this will open their eyes. Yes, it’s long. Yes, it’s hard. But it’s not impossible.” What about a possible appeal? “It’s his right”, decided the young woman who then did not fail to go to see Saad Lamjarred’s lawyers to explain to them that they hurt him, even if they only did defend their client. Words that she wanted to say to them “to be able to move forward”.

Defended by Jean-Marc Fedida and Thierry Herzog, who is also Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer, the Moroccan popstar will not escape prison, despite a different story from that of the complainant. Throughout the week, two versions have been diametrically opposed to the bar, even if the two parties have agreed on their meeting and the start of the evening: in a nightclub, one evening in October 2016, then an after party in the artist’s hotel room.

Two divergent versions

It is on the sequel that the versions are opposed. The alleged victim, Laura P., recounted, at the bar, the violence that Saad Lamjarred would have subjected him to. He would have undressed her by force, before licking her body and giving her a first punch and inflicting two penetrations, digital, vaginal and anal, and a brief penile penetration, reports AFP. On the contrary, Saad Lamjarred spoke of foreplay “like two people who meet and like each other”, details The Parisian.

He then recognized violence, after feeling a scratch on his back. “At that time, I had a reflex that I still regret today: I pushed his face hard and squeezed him,” he explained on the stand, according to the newspaper, before addressing the complainant: “I regret this reflex of involuntary violence, I did not want to make you cry.” Expressing these regrets, Saad Lamjarred pleaded a “misunderstanding” and a “misunderstanding.” The artist was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. He insisted: “I will maintain it until my last breath: I have never penetrated Mrs. Laura P., neither with my penis, nor with my finger”

Other similar charges

Saad Lamjarred is also accused of aggravated rape in a case that allegedly took place in similar circumstances in August 2018, in Saint-Tropez. In this case, he must be tried soon for rape before the Assize Court of Var. His name had been cited in several rape cases, in the United States and Morocco.