BROOKLYN — A Moroccan pop star who fled rape charges in the United States was arrested in Paris on similar charges last month, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office and reports.
Saad Lamjarred, 31 — who earned international fame with a stint on a Moroccan soap opera and multiple hit singles — has been on the lam since 2010 after being indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on 21 criminal charges that included rape, sexual abuse, sexual assault and harassment, according to court documents and Lamjarred’s former attorney Ezra Levy.
Now the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is considering extraditing Lamjarred from Paris, where he has been been behind bars since late October, when a 20-year-old French woman reportedly accused him of violently and sexually assaulting her in his hotel room, officials said.
“That matter is under review,” said a representative from the Brooklyn DA's office.
Attorney Rifat Harb, who represents the woman who accused him of rape in Brooklyn in 2010, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since fleeing the U.S., Lamjarred earned international fame as an actor on the Moroccan soap opera Ahlam Nassim and as a singer with multiple hit singles.
His 2015 hit LM3ALLEM, or The Boss, broke the Guinness World Record for most viewed Moroccan video on YouTube.
The music video features a fez-clad Lamjarred singing that anyone who leaves him “will regret one day” and a row of women who put their fingers to their lips and promise to be “silent in his presence.”
The pop star was scheduled to perform at the Palais des congrès de Paris, a concert venue and shopping mall, on Oct. 29th, Le Monde reported.
He has been held in custody since the young woman fled his room at the Marriott Champs-Elysees, according to Le Monde.
Moroccan king Mohammed VI has promised to pay for the pop singer’s legal fees, according to a report from the British newspaper The Independent.
