Rabat – Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred has once again been arrested on a rape allegation in France, where he is already charged with rape.
The singer is making international news headlines, but the news will not please his fans.
French authorities arrested Lamjarred on Sunday morning in Saint-Tropez in southeastern France after receiving a new complaint from another alleged victim.
Quoting a French prosecutor, Inquirer.net confirmed his arrest. However, the prosecutor’s office has not given any details on the arrest and allegation.
Not the first time
Lamjarred is already facing rape charges in France; he was arrested on October 26, 2016, for the sexual assault of a woman named Laura Prioul.
French authorities temporarily released the artist on bail under electronic surveillance on April 13, 2017, after he spent nearly six months at the Marriott Champs Elysées in Paris pending his trial.
Since his release on bail, the 33-year-old artist has returned to Morocco twice. In May, the French court allowed him to spend the holy month of Ramadan in the kingdom. He even filmed two of his new popular songs in Morocco: “Ghazali” and “Casablanca.”
Lamjarred denied Prioul’s allegations against him. Dozens of Moroccan and international singers expressed sympathy and solidarity with the singer, including Emirati star Ahlam and Moroccan singer Asma El Mnawar.
Prioul told her version of the story in a video she posted on Youtube on November 12, 2017.
She explained how the alleged crime “ruined” her life. Prioul claimed that Lamjarred invited her to his hotel room and forcefully raped her.
“We put some music and danced and laughed. We got closer to each other at some point, and we kissed. He wanted to kiss me again but I turned my head away. He did not like the fact that I refused him, therefore, I was hit…. I wanted to defend myself, and this person hit me again, and again and again.… I couldn’t do anything. He was stronger than me. That person raped me.”
She continued, “After he raped me, I locked myself in the bathroom. Then I realized that I had to go back to the room because my phone was there. I had to call someone for help.”
After the rape, Prioul claimed that Lamjarred attempted to act as if nothing had happened.
“He asked me why I was crying, if I was injured, and if I needed some ice?” Prioul added that her alleged aggressor became a totally different person, as if nothing had happened.
Lamjarred also faced a rape charge in the United States. A woman told the American daily, New York Post in May 2016 that the Moroccan singer sexually assaulted her in a New York apartment in 2010.
However, Lamjarred left the US on bail, and the prosecutor later dropped the charges when the woman withdrew her complaint due to a settlement.
