Rabat – A judge in a French court has ruled that rape was not “absolutely characterized” in the case of Laura Prioul, the first French woman who filed a rape complaint against Moroccan pop star Saad Lamjarred.
According to French news outlet Le Parisien, the judge redefined the charges against Lamjarred. The singer will face sexual assault charges instead.
Prioul has appealed the judge’s verdict, Le Parisien added.
The judge made her judgement after DNA test revealed the absence of material evidence to prove Lamjarred guilty.
Prioul accused Lamjarred of rape and sexual assault in October 2018. The French woman said that the singer “ruined” her life, claiming that Lamjarred raped and beat her after she “refused him.”
Police arrested Lamjarred, who then spent six months at the Marriott Champs Elysees in Paris before he was released in April 2017 on bail under electronic surveillance.
Police arrested the singer once again in August 2018 in Saint-Tropez in southeastern France, after a new rape complaint was filed against him by a young French woman.
Following the Saint-Tropez incident, Lamjarred paid €150,000 bail and was let out on probation.
On September 18, the singer went back to jail after a prosecutor appealed the release and the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeals’ ruled he should return to jail. The court then released Lamjarred in December.
Read also: More Women Accuse Saad Lamjarred of Sexual Assault
The singer had faced rape accusations previously. The first accusation dates back to 2010 in New York. US prosecutors later dropped the case when the plaintiff withdrew.
Lamjarred is one of the most popular artists in Morocco and the Arab world.
