Rabat – French police arrested Abdelfatah Jawadi on Saturday, September 15, in the city of Grenoble. Jawadi is suspected of raping a young French woman.
According to Moroccan news outlets, French authorities have seized Jawadi’s passport and car. The comedian is under exit restrictions and will remain in Grenoble pending his first trial in October.
After his initial arrest, French authorities placed the Moroccan comedian at a detention center for illegal migrants in Grenoble, says Hibapress.
Alyaoum 24 reported that the comedian was temporarily released on the eve of Monday, September 16. Jawadi has not yet made any official statement on the accusations.
The comedian, winner of the Moroccan Comedy TV show “Comédia”, left Morocco a few months ago to settle permanently in Switzerland.
Last year, Jawadi was sued in Morocco by comedians Mohamed Khiari and Rachid Allali for defamation.
Jawadi is not the first Moroccan figure to be accused of rape and sexual assault in France. In October 2016, Singer Saad Lamjarred faced rape charges in France. French police arrested the singer for the sexual assault of a woman named Laura Prioul.
Police arrested the singer once again in August 2018 in Saint-Tropez in southeastern France, after another young woman filed a rape complaint against him.
Lamjarred has a long history of allegations. He was first accused back in 2010 in New York. The charges, however, were dropped when the plaintiff withdrew the complaint.
