Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred, who was tried last week before the Criminal Court in Paris on charges of rape, appealed once morest a six-year prison sentence, his lawyer and a judicial source announced on Tuesday.
“Given his assertion of innocence, Saad Lamjarred appealed today,” the singer’s lawyers, Thierry Herzog and Jean-Marc Vidida, told AFP.
In the ruling issued on Friday, the Criminal Court in Paris expressed its “conviction” of the occurrence of the rape, which was described by the plaintiff, Laura B. In the suit she brought “in a consistent and meticulous manner”.
The plaintiff told the court that Saad Lamjarred, whom she met in a nightclub in October 2016, had beaten and raped her in a luxury hotel room in Paris.
The famous singer in the Arab world was imprisoned immediately following the verdict was issued under a detention order.
The 37-year-old singer’s lawyer said that “the detention order issued once morest him was not justified because he had consistently adhered to the terms of judicial control” to which he was subject.
division in Morocco
In Morocco, the sentencing of Lamjarred’s imprisonment sparked a wide divide, which was evident in conflicting comments on social networks.
The artist’s friends and fans insist on his “innocence” just because, considering that the plaintiff agreed to have a relationship with him as soon as she accompanied him to the hotel room, while others promote conspiracy theories linking the judicial ruling to “French racism”, in light of a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Rabat.
The well-known Moroccan presenter, Rachid El Idrissi, wrote on his Instagram account recently, “I have not yet understood, and will not understand, this unfair ruling once morest my brother and friend Saad.”
In response to these positions, feminist activists criticized what they considered the “normalization of violence once morest women.” One netizen even called for the criminalization of “glorification of rape”, similar to what happens in cases of “glorification of terrorism”.
Saad Lamjarred is also wanted for trial before the Criminal Court in the Var region, in southern France, on the background of similar accusations related to supposed incidents that took place in the city of Saint-Tropez in 2018.