When the first complaint was announced in August 2023, Lomepal declared that he “will answer to justice” and that he was “serene”, proclaiming his innocence. “I answered questions for 3 days, my loved ones, my family, my exes, my friends, everyone was questioned. Today, a dismissal was pronounced,” he continues. “Thank you to those who chose to wait for a response. It’s there. I’m getting back to my life, see you soon,” concludes the rapper. Let us remember, however, that a classification without further action “is not a final decision”, according to French law. Lomepal was therefore not exonerated in the narrow sense.
The investigations were launched after the filing in 2020 of a complaint from an acquaintance of the rapper, who accused him of having raped her in 2017 in New York.
A second woman filed a complaint at the end of 2023, denouncing acts of rape in 2018 in France. The latter’s counsel, Sacha Ghozlan, told AFP on Friday that he was considering filing a new complaint, this time with the creation of a civil party, in order to relaunch the investigations by obtaining referral to an investigating judge. “The prosecution is not saying that the offense did not take place, but that the facts are old and that there is not enough evidence to refer it to a trial court,” he said. underlines.
Lomepal, whose real name is Antoine Valentinelli, was confronted by the two complainants at the end of February 2024, in police custody. A third woman then filed a complaint in May 2024 and her accusations were added to the preliminary investigation. The affair began to take on a certain magnitude in the summer of 2023. On July 19, the editor-in-chief of the online media Joly Môme, Jenna Boulmedais, revealed on Instagram that for two years she had been hearing “testimonies from women who have suffered the inappropriate and unwanted gestures” by Lomepal. “The entire music industry knows about it. This silence is literally no longer possible. Seeing his name headlining many festivals as well,” she said.
-Recognized for his style and his sentimental lyrics which have long earned him the label of +pink rap+, Lomepal has carved out his furrow in a very diverse rap scene, collaborating with rap heavyweights like Nekfeu, Orelsan and Romeo Elvis. In 2017, his first album, “Flip”, made him a star. A year later came “Jeannine”, a melancholy tribute to her grandmother. His latest, “Bad Order”, was released in 2022.
On the criminal side, the world of French rap has recently been marked by several cases of sexual violence, with strong media coverage.
