Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred sentenced to five years in 2018 rape case

Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison by the Var criminal court in Draguignan over the rape of a young barmaid in 2018. However, the court did not issue an arrest warrant against the 41-year-old artist, who had appeared in court as a free man throughout the week-long closed-door trial, AFP reported.

Prosecutors had requested a 10-year prison sentence against the singer. Lamjarred broke down in tears after the verdict and embraced his wife and mother-in-law in court.

Lamjarred was also ordered to pay the victim €30,000 in damages and €5,000 in legal fees.

The case stems from an encounter in a nightclub in Saint-Tropez in August 2018. The young woman accused Lamjarred of rape after accompanying him to his hotel room, saying she had only agreed to have a drink there. Lamjarred maintained during the investigation that the sexual encounter was consensual.

Although prosecutors had not opposed dismissing the case earlier in the proceedings, the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal confirmed in 2021 that Lamjarred should stand trial, stressing that entering a man’s hotel room did not automatically imply consent.

Lamjarred had already been sentenced in 2023 to six years in prison for the rape of a young woman he met in a Paris nightclub in 2016, a conviction he continues to deny. The appeal trial in that case, initially scheduled for June 2025 in Créteil, was postponed after relatives of the complainant allegedly attempted to monetize her silence.