Rabat – Infamous Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred is set to return to Paris’ criminal court for the alleged rape of Laura Prioul, a French national.
The decision to reopen the case comes at the request of the Paris Court of Appeal, according to sources quoted in French news outlet Le Parisien.
Prioul is one of a number of women who have accused Lamjarred of rape. Her case dates back to October 26, 2016.
The court of appeal’s decision to reopen the case comes after an investigating judge ruled in April 2019 that rape was not “absolutely characterized” in Prioul’s case.
The judge redefined the charges against Lamjarred in April, 2019 after a DNA test confirmed the absence of material evidence to prove him guilty.
Prioul appealed the judge’s verdict.
The French woman said that the singer “ruined” her life, claiming that Lamjarred had raped and beat her after she “refused him.”
Commenting on the court’s recent decision, Prioul’s lawyer, Jean-Marc Descoubes, said that his client is satisfied with the decision.
“The investigating chamber made a reading and a rigorous analysis of the facts,” Descoubes said.
“Rape is a crime, it is the assize court which is competent” to deal with such cases, the lawyer added.
The 34-year old singer continues to deny the accusations against him.
Lamjarred’s lawyers will appeal the court’s ruling to avoid a lawsuit against the singer, Le Parisien added.
Police arrested Lamjarred in 2016. He then spent six months at the Marriott Champs Elysees prison in Paris before he was released on bail in April 2017 under electronic surveillance.
The police arrested the singer again in August 2018 in Saint-Tropez, southeastern France, after a young French woman filed a new rape complaint against him.
Police released him after he paid €150,000 bail.
In September 2018, the singer went back to jail against after a prosecutor appealed the release. The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal released him again in December of the same year.
Lamjarred, one of the most popular artists in Morocco and in the Middle East, continues to perform in concert, especially in the Gulf countries, despite the ongoing criminal proceedings.
It remains to be seen whether the court will find Lamjarred guilty on rape charges.
