HIBAPRESS
Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred appears today, Monday, before a court in southeastern France on charges of raping a waitress in 2018, a charge the famous artist denies in the Arab world.
Lamjarred, 40 years old, attends the session on bail, to be held at the Criminal Court in Draguignan at 2 pm French time, while the verdict is expected on Thursday. The lawyer for the plaintiff, Dominique Lardant, announced that he would request a closed hearing, explaining to Agence France-Presse that his client "is waiting with confidence to be recognized as a victim." The events of the case date back to August 2018, when Lardant was working as a waitress in Saint-Tropez, southeastern France, where she met the singer in a nightclub. According to her testimony before the investigators, "she did not know that he was a famous singer, and she was impressed with him and agreed to have a drink with him at the hotel where he was staying." The complainant added that Saad Lamjarred "stripped her of her clothes and raped her," while he confirmed that the relationship was consensual. A blood alcohol test conducted on both parties hours later showed that the alcohol level in her blood ranged between 1.2 and 1.4 grams/liter, and in his blood between 1.6 and 1.8 grams/liter. It is worth noting that the French judiciary had previously sentenced Saad Lamjarred in 2023 to six years in prison after he was convicted of raping a young woman in 2016, but he appealed the sentence, insisting on his innocence. The appeal trial scheduled for last June at the Créteil court near Paris was postponed. The young woman and four of her partners will also be tried on charges of extortion after they tried to obtain three million euros from Saad Lamjarred in exchange for withdrawing the complaint.
