It was the consistency and precision of the victim’s testimony that convinced the jurors. The Paris Assize Court on Friday sentenced Moroccan star singer Saad Lamjarred to six years in prison, convicted of raping and beating a young woman in a hotel room in the capital in October 2016.
After seven hours of deliberation, the court said it was “convinced” of the rape. A warrant of committal has been issued, Saad Lamjarred will therefore be detained immediately. Seven years’ imprisonment and five years’ ban on French territory had been requested the day before, the prosecution considering for its part that the rape was “established”, but that Saad Lamjarred is not a “sexual predator”.
Stopped by hotel employees
The charges against Saad Lamjarred date back to October 2016. The victim had met the singer in a nightclub and had followed him to a first “after”. At the end of an evening loaded with alcohol and cocaine, she had accompanied him to his hotel on the Champs-Elysées.
They had kissed then he had “suddenly pushed his head which had hit the ground”, she said in tears at the bar. He then beat and raped her. She fled the room and was picked up by hotel employees. These same employees then stopped the presumably drunk man who was chasing her in her underwear.