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Casablanca — Saad Lamjarred could still be extradited in the U.S. for rape charges levied against him in 2010, reports the New York Post.
A spokeswoman for the Brooklyn district attorney would have confirmed with the NY Post that Lamjarred’s extradition is still “under review.”
Lamjarred, a Moroccan singer who is popular across the Middle East, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York in 2010 after being accused of rape by an aspiring model. The woman’s attorney, Rifat Harb, told the magazine that Lamjarred was only a bar performer at that time.
After two court appearances, Lamjarred jumped bail, left the country, and the case was sealed. The plaintiff stopped trying.
It was only after Harb travelled to Israel that he realized that Lamjarred had become a celebrity, an “overnight success,” in the Middle East.
“[My client] being deprived of justice is the reason he made it big,” Harb told the NY Post, adding that “if he hadn’t run, he likely never would have achieved fame.”
In June, the U.S. woman settled the civil suit against Lamjarred for an undisclosed sum of money. Speaking to Al Arabiya English, the plaintiff’s attorney explained that while the civil sexual assault charges were cleared, the criminal sexual assault charges still remain.
If called to testify against him, Harb tells the Post, the woman will not “obstruct justice.”
“She wants to move on with her life,” Harb continued. “She just wants to move past this.”
Lamjarred is currently behind bars in the Paris Fleury-Mérogis prison after another plaintiff, this time a 20-year-old French woman, pressed charges for “aggravated sexual assault” on October 26 in Paris.
