Rabat – A French court in Draguignan has sentenced Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred to five years in prison after finding him guilty of rape in a case linked to events in 2018 near Saint-Tropez.
The trial took place behind closed doors at the request of the complainant. The court also ordered him to pay damages and legal costs. Lamjarred, who denies the accusations, was not immediately taken into custody after the verdict, as the court did not issue an order for immediate detention.
The case concerns an incident in August 2018, when a young woman working as a barmaid in Saint-Tropez met Lamjarred at a nightclub and later went with him to a hotel. According to her testimony, the situation turned non-consensual in the hotel room. The singer has consistently said the encounter was consensual. He spent three months in pre-trial detention in 2018 during the early stages of the investigation.
This ruling is separate from other legal cases involving the artist in France. In a different case, Lamjarred was convicted in 2023 by a court in Paris over a rape allegation dating back to 2016 involving another woman, Laura Prioul, and different circumstances.
Last month, a Paris criminal court ruled in a blackmail-related case connected to Lamjarred’s 2016 rape case. Laura Prioul was acquitted of attempted blackmail charges after the court found insufficient evidence that she tried to extort money in exchange for changing her testimony.
However, several other defendants in the same case were convicted and received prison sentences or suspended terms for their roles in the alleged extortion scheme. These include her mother, a friend, and a lawyer, along with other people linked to the coordination of the alleged plan to pressure or influence the case.
The court said their actions were part of an organized attempt to influence the proceedings, while assigning different levels of responsibility among those involved.
Beyond France, Lamjarred has faced multiple accusations over the years. He was previously investigated in Morocco in 2015 and in the United States in 2010 in cases involving sexual assault allegations, which did not result in final convictions.
