Moroccan Singer Saad Lamjarred Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison on Appeal Over 2016 Paris Rape

Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred, one of the Arab world’s most widely followed performers, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a French appeals court, a significantly heavier term than the six years he received at his original 2023 trial.

The ruling came Saturday from the cour d’assises d’appel du Val-de-Marne, sitting in Créteil, southeast of Paris, which convicted the 41-year-old of aggravated rape, with his intoxication at the time cited as an aggravating factor. Judges ordered his immediate imprisonment following the verdict. French prosecutors had requested an eight-year sentence during the appeal, meaning the court ultimately went beyond what was sought. The verdict closed eight days of hearings that began on September 17, held behind closed doors at the request of the civil party, after the case had already been postponed once in June 2025 to allow for further investigation.

The case centers on an incident from October 2016, when Lamjarred, then 31, met a woman identified in court documents as Laura P., 20 at the time, at a nightclub in Paris. The two later went to a hotel room, where the court found he raped her. Lamjarred has consistently denied the allegations and maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. His lawyer, Marie Burguburu, told AFP the defense plans to challenge the ruling before France’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest court for reviewing legal procedure. If that appeal is accepted, the case could be sent for a full retrial before a new appeals court; if rejected, the 10-year sentence becomes final and legally binding. David Chemmi, one of Laura P.’s lawyers, said the increased sentence reflected the singer’s conduct toward the complainant throughout the legal proceedings. Laura P. herself was acquitted in a related case, while her mother, a lawyer, a social media influencer and two others received suspended sentences ranging from six months to two years in connection with the same matter.

Saturday’s ruling adds to a mounting legal record for the singer. In May, a separate court in Draguignan, southern France, sentenced Lamjarred to five years in prison over the rape of a young woman near Saint-Tropez in 2018, a decision he has also appealed. He has faced additional allegations dating back further, including accusations in Morocco in 2015 and a case in the United States in 2010, where prosecutors dropped rape and sexual assault charges after a financial settlement was reached with the alleged victim.

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Despite the conviction, Lamjarred retains a substantial public following across the Arab world, with more than 15 million followers on Instagram and nearly 16 million subscribers on YouTube, built over a career defined by hit songs that have dominated regional charts for over a decade. That following was reflected in the reaction to Saturday’s verdict, with several prominent figures in Moroccan entertainment publicly voicing support in the aftermath of the ruling. Moroccan singer and actor Hatim Ammor shared a message of support on Instagram, while Lamjarred’s father, Moroccan artist Bashir Abdou, broke his silence to comment on the sentence in a Facebook post.

The case has drawn significant attention across Morocco and the wider Middle East given Lamjarred’s prominence in the region’s music industry, and the ten-year term marks one of the most serious legal consequences faced by a major Arab pop star in recent memory. With an appeal to France’s Court of Cassation now expected, the final outcome of the case, and whether the sentence ultimately stands, remains unresolved as the legal process continues.