sentenced to 6 years for rape, the details of the verdict

LAMJARRED. Saad Lamjarred was sentenced to 6 years in prison by the Paris court on Friday. The Moroccan popstar was convicted of raping a 20-year-old woman.

[Mis à jour le 24 février 2023 à 19h59] The Paris Assize Court sentenced Saad Lamjarred to 6 years in prison, finding him guilty of rape, in 2016, of Laura, a 20-year-old young woman. Seven years had been required. “The court and the jury were convinced of the forced nature of the penetrations”, explained the president, told by an RFI journalist, recalling that the complainant never changed her version, which agreed with the medical certificate which made state of lesions inside the vagina and bodily harm. The absence of DNA therefore did not exculpate Saad Lamjarred and the examinations carried out on his body did not correspond to his declarations. Other elements such as testimonials, a message from Laura, her clothes or even a psychological analysis came to play in favor of the victim.

In prison after the 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. Note that if Saad Lamjarred was convicted for the rape of Laura, the popstar was acquitted for the voluntary violence, still indicates on Twitter the journalist of RFI Marine de La Moissonnière. Placed under immediate arrest warrant, the singer will sleep in prison from this Friday evening. 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 therefore 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 preliminaries “like two people who meet and like each other”, details Le Parisien.

He then recognized violence, after feeling a scratch on his back. “At that moment, 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 also been cited in several rape cases in the United States and Morocco.