Rape established, but Saad Lamjarred is not a “sexual predator”, according to the prosecution. Seven years of imprisonment and five years of prohibition of the French territory were required Thursday before the Court of Assizes of Paris against the Moroccan star singer.
Sitting at the front of a small room full of onlookers and fans, Saad Lamjarred, 37, shows no reaction to the announcement of the requested sentence. On the benches of the civil parties, Laura P. seems overwhelmed.
In rape trials “we often hear about word against word “Begins Advocate General Jean-Christophe Muller. “But before the words there are the facts, the objective and acquired elements,” he continues.
This evening of October 2016, there is on one side “a young woman of 20”, “in the making”, and on the other, “a 31-year-old man already well established in existence”.
Laura P. and Saad Lamjarred “plunged” when they met in a posh nightclub in the capital, surely still during a first “after party”, and also when she agreed to follow him to his hotel on the Champs-Élysées, recalls the accusation – Laura P. herself admitted that she was considering a “flirt”.
Lamjarred strongly contests
According to the version that the young woman with long brown hair had told in tears and trembling on the stand, Saad Lamjarred had suddenly become violent as they kissed on the carpet of the hotel room, before raping her and hit her.
Saad Lamjarred strongly denies any sexual penetration, and just admits having “brutally pushed the face” of the young woman who, according to him, had suddenly scratched him on the back while they were undressing.
VIDEO. Saad Lamjarred tried for rape in Paris: the complainant “wanted to face him eye to eye”
The Advocate General evokes the blows observed on the body of Laura, this scratch which is not demonstrated. As for the sexual intercourse, it recalls the “traces” inside the vagina, which “can be related to a recent sexual intercourse, without being specific” according to the expertise, he concedes.
But Laura P. is constant in her statements, “from the start”, insists the Advocate General, also referring to the statements of hotel employees who took care of a young woman “terrified” and in tears.
Other charges against the artist
But to determine the sentence, it is necessary to “know whether Saad Lamjarred is a sexual predator or someone who seizes the opportunities that arise”, advances the Advocate General, who believes that the psychological and psychiatric expertise did not put forward this logic of predation.
He recalls, however, that Saad Lamjarred must also be tried for rape before the Var Assize Court for almost identical facts that occurred in Saint-Tropez, and that he was also accused of rape in New York and Casablanca in circumstances similar.
At the hearing, Saad Lamjarred, the same navy sweater and white shirt since the opening of the trial on Monday, constantly refused to answer questions about these cases.
“If you acquit him today, you are telling rape victims it’s not worth coming to see usand above all you allow him to continue”, had launched in his pleading one of the lawyers of the civil party, Me Joël Assouad.
Saad Lamjarred, who presented “three different versions” of the evening over the course of the investigation, “is clearly a liar”, had struck his colleague Me Jean-Marc Descoubès. Laura P. meanwhile, “has always been consistent.” The hearing continues with the arguments of the defense, the verdict will be rendered on Friday.