Rape trial of Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred opens in southern France

The trial of Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred opened in Draguignan in southern France on Monday, where he is charged with raping a woman in 2018.

Lamjarred arrived in court alongside his wife to stand trial. The singer is accused of the 2018 rape of a barmaid in Saint-Tropez, charges he denies.

The trial is taking place behind closed doors at the request of the alleged victim.

According to prosecutors, the 41-year-old artist — a star in Morocco and the Arab world — attacked the woman after meeting her at a nightclub.

His accuser says she agreed to have a drink with him at his hotel bar but that he led her directly to his bedroom where he forced her onto the bed and raped her while holding her wrists.

Lamjarred says the encounter was consensual and claims the woman removed her trousers herself.

A friend of the young woman has testified that she was called for help and found her in shock, with her lips swollen and eyes vacant.

This isn't the first time the singer has faced charges of sexual assault.

In 2010, Lamjarred was accused of beating and raping a woman in New York but charges were dropped after he reached a financial settlement with his accuser. In 2017, a French-Moroccan woman withdrew a complaint against him reportedly under pressure from her own family.

A third charge from 2016 led to his being sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly hitting and raping a woman in Paris. An appeal trial is due to take place in September.

Scheduled for December 2025, more than seven years after the alleged assault, the trial had been postponed because the presiding judge was ill.