Lamjarred, 37, met the sufferer at a nightclub in Paris in October 2016. They went to his lodge, the place the sufferer, who was 20 on the time of the assault, mentioned she consented to kiss him however that the singer hit and raped her when she refused additional advances from him.

The court docket and the jurors discovered the sufferer had remained constant in her account statements, whereas Lamjarred’s statements had been “variable and evolving.” Lamjarred protested his innocence all through the case, telling the decide on the ultimate day of the trial: “I completely didn’t do what I’ve been accused of,” in line with French media.

The sufferer broke down in tears as the decision was learn out. “I spoke for me, but in addition for all of the others,” she advised Radio France Internationale afterward. “I hope it has opened their eyes. Sure, it’s lengthy. Sure, it’s arduous. Nevertheless it’s not not possible.”

Lamjarred is behind one of the crucial profitable trendy Arabic-language songs, “Lm3allem,” which has been considered a couple of billion occasions on YouTube.

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When the rape case towards Lamjarred was introduced in 2016, the Moroccan king made an uncommon intervention, appointing a lawyer for Lamjarred’s protection and saying he would cowl the star’s authorized prices. Information of that call has since been deleted from Moroccan state media, whereas the appointed lawyer confirmed to a Moroccan information web site in 2018 that he was now not representing Lamjarred.

Earlier than the court docket verdict, Lamjarred was free to proceed singing overseas and featured in songs by among the largest names in Arabic music. Nevertheless, he additionally confronted a backlash in components of the Center East, with one in all his deliberate performances in Cairo in 2020 canceled after an outcry on social media beneath the Arabic hashtag: “We are not looking for Saad Lamjarred in Egypt.”

Converse Up, an Egyptian feminist initiative that had supported the requires Lamjarred’s live shows within the nation to be canceled, described the decision as “completely happy information.” His sufferer, in the meantime, mentioned she had obtained loss of life threats and insults following the assault after her identify was leaked by a blogger.

“It has now been a 12 months since I used to be bodily attacked, hit, raped. For a 12 months, I’ve been hiding from the media, hiding from everybody, however everyone seems to be speaking about me,” she mentioned in a video in 2017, the place she spoke publicly in regards to the case for the primary time.

“So many individuals have been speaking about me, insulting me, however no person supported me other than my household and pals,” she mentioned on the time. On the trial, the court docket discovered she confirmed indicators of post-traumatic stress, in line with French information stories. Lamjarred has additionally been charged with the rape of a lady in 2018 in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, though a trial date has not been set but, in line with the Related Press.