Rabat – Moroccan disgraced singer Saad Lamjarred has appealed his six-year prison sentence that he was issued last week by the Criminal Court in Paris under charges of aggravated rape and assault.
According to a statement from his defense to AFP, Lamjarred continues to “maintain his innocence, and that is why he is appealing the verdict.”
Lajarred was immediately transferred to prison after the judge pronounced the verdict. His defense says that the immediate detention was “not justified because he had always adhered to parol he was under.”
The verdict comes six years after French national Laura Prioul filed a complaint against him in October 2016 accusing him of aggravated assault and rape. The 20-year-old had testified that the singer assaulted her physically and raped her at a luxury hotel in Paris while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
Other eyewitnesses from the hotel court testified that they saw her leaving the hotel crying in a state of distress.
Read also: Moroccan Celebrities Stand with Saad Lamjarred Following Rape Conviction
The singer denied Priol’s testimonies claiming that they consensually “kissed repeatedly,” but they did not engage in further sexual acts.
On Thursday, however, seven out of the nine juries found him guilty and the judge sentenced him to six years of prison. The prosecutor had previously demanded a seven-year prison sentence and for the defendant as well as ban that would prohibit him from France.
This is not the first time Lamjarred was accused of rape. In 2010, an American woman first leveled charges of rape against the singer, and he also faced charges of rape in France in 2016 and 2018.
