The Paris Court of Appeal has again returned to the assizes the Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred for the aggravated rape of a young woman of twenty years in 2016, we learned Thursday, March 4 from a judicial source, confirming information from the Parisian.
Read also: Suspected rape: singer Saad Lamjarred released and placed under judicial supervision
The 35-year-old artist, adored in Morocco, was initially sent back to correctional in April 2019 by an examining magistrate who had reclassified the facts as
“sexual assault”
and
“aggravated violence”
.
But in January 2020, the investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal reversed this order for the first time, considering that the facts should be qualified as rape, a crime punishable by assizes.
The Court of Cassation, however, invalidated this decision, for a lack of signature of the president of the chamber.
Recovering the facts, the court of appeal again ordered Tuesday that Saad Lamjarred be tried at the assizes for
"aggravated rape"
, in accordance with the requisitions of the general prosecutor's office, according to the judicial source.
The singer, who can still seize the Court of Cassation, faces twenty years of criminal imprisonment.
His lawyers could not be reached by AFP on Thursday evening.
Read also: The King of Morocco flies to the rescue of Saad Lamjarred, suspected of aggravated rape
"We are satisfied, the Assize Court is the appropriate jurisdiction to judge the facts of which my client was the victim
,
"
reacted to AFP the lawyer for the plaintiff, Me Jean-Marc Descoubès.
The young woman, Laura P.,
"is trying to continue to live more or less normally and she will face the trial,"
he added.
The facts she denounces would have taken place against a background of alcohol and drugs in the room of a Parisian hotel, in October 2016, a few days before a concert by the artist.
Incarcerated in the wake, Saad Lamjarred was released under an electronic bracelet in April 2017. In this same judicial information, the artist was indicted in April 2017, accused of having raped and beaten a young Franco-Moroccan in Casablanca in 2015. The complainant then withdrew from the proceedings and the judge ordered that this part be dismissed.
He was also indicted in August 2018 for the rape of a young woman in Saint-Tropez, on the Côte d'Azur.
Read also: Saad Lamjarred case: Laura Prioul, alleged victim of rape, comes out of silence
Saad Lamjarred was then imprisoned for two and a half months before being released and forced to reside in Paris during the investigation, led by an examining magistrate from Draguignan (Var).
Originally from Rabat, Saad Lamjarred grew up in a family of renowned artists.
He started to make himself known in the Arab world in 2007 by participating in the Lebanese show "Super Star" before becoming a star in 2013 with his title
Mal Hbibi Malou
(
What happens to my beloved ?
).
The rape accusations targeting him had revived the debate in Morocco on violence against women, but he remains supported by his fans.
