A Libyan refugee faces trial in Paris this week after allegedly raping a woman at knifepoint after she hosted him in her home for several weeks.
The trial of Libyan refugee Samir L., said to be in his late thirties, began this week on Thursday at the Paris Assizes court, where he is accused of raping 33-year-old Sabrina C. in her own home.
The rape allegedly took place at the start of last year, several weeks after the French woman had met the refugee at a party and had taken him in after learning he had been living in a squat, Actu reports.
According to the victim, the North African later became violent after an evening of drinking alcohol and came at her with a pair of knives, tried to steal her phone, and then proceeded to beat her and rape her.
Following his arrest, another woman claimed the refugee had sexually assaulted her on public transit as well.
The Libyan rejects the allegations, despite police finding his fingerprints on a knife in the home, and while he admitted he had been drinking he stated that the alleged victim had also been drinking, claiming not to recall the events of the evening.
He told police that the following morning he woke up and saw another man in the home armed with a knife and stated that the alleged victim had problems with drinking and became aggressive after consuming alcohol.
The case is just the latest this year to involve a migrant in France accused of rape.
In March, two illegal immigrants, both also from North Africa, were indicted by a French court for allegedly raping a 20-year-old disabled man in a small village, for example.
In another case, last month, a Congolese migrant with an unenforced deportation order, previously been convicted of rape multiple times in the last 22 years, was arrested again in Rennes for sexually abusing a woman in the lobby of a building after asking for a cigarette.
Just weeks later, another migrant with at least three deportation orders, a 22-year-old from Jordan, was arrested in Paris after allegedly raping a woman in the emergency room of a hospital as she was unconscious.