Saad Lamjarred was sentenced to ten years in prison in the rape case of Laura B.

Last May, Saad Lamjarred was preparing for new concerts. He wrote to his followers at the time that he was on his way home and would return to work, despite having been sentenced to five years in prison in a separate case. On Saturday morning, September 26, the Moroccan singer emerged from the Court of Appeal in Crete, sentenced to ten years in a rape case dating back to 2016, with an order to put him in prison.

The court thus increased the six-year sentence imposed on him in 2023, after convicting him of raping Laura B. Inside a hotel room in Paris. The prosecution had requested that he be imprisoned for eight years. Lamjarred maintains his innocence, and his lawyer, Mary Borgoboro, said that the defense will resort to the Court of Cassation.

The first reaction from his family

The singer's father, artist Al-Bashir Abdo, was not late in commenting. In a post on his Instagram account, he described the ruling as “unjust,” and repeated that his son was “oppressed.” On the other hand, David Shimi, one of Laura B.'s lawyers, believed that the defense's method of casting doubt on her story and attacking investigators and experts may have contributed to the severity of the sentence. This is an explanation provided by the plaintiff’s lawyer, and not a reason announced by the court for the ruling.

The song of the billion... and the controversy does not stop

Outside of court, Lamjarred's stardom did not disappear throughout the years of litigation. More than 15 million people follow him on Instagram, and the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel is approaching 16 million. His song “Teacher” has exceeded one billion views. But these numbers alone do not tell the story of his relationship with the public. With almost every judicial development, the same question returns: Is it possible to continue listening to the songs of an artist who was convicted in a rape case?

The singer's judicial file is not limited to this case. On May 15, the Criminal Court in Var, southern France, convicted him of raping a young woman in a case dating back to 2018 near Saint-Tropez, and sentenced him to five years in prison. He appealed just because of that ruling, according to what his lawyer announced to Agence France-Presse. The final appeal ruling in the case of Laura B. included an order to place him in prison.

Supportive feedback

The Moroccan website "Le360" monitored the interaction of a number of artistic and media names, including the journalist Rachid Al-Idrissi, the artist Shaima Omran, the young man Younes, Rabab Najid, Muhammad Khayi, Sahar Al-Siddiqi, and the Iraqi singer Shatha Hassoun.