2023-09-24 00:42:20
After more than two weeks of trial, the Paris Assize Court delivered its verdict on Saturday September 23. She sentenced rapper MHD to twelve years of criminal imprisonment for the murder in 2018 of a young man, lynched as part of a settling of scores between rival Parisian gangs, facts which he disputes.
Five of his co-defendants were also sentenced to terms ranging from ten to eighteen years in prison, the maximum sentence having been imposed on a defendant who is on the run and was therefore tried in absentia. His DNA was detected on a knife found at the crime scene. Three other men were acquitted.
When the verdict was announced, several women in the audience, relatives of the accused, burst into tears. MHD, for his part, remained stoic, before hugging a crying woman. His lawyers declined to make a statement after the verdict. Those convicted have ten days to appeal.
“Heavy hearing, but a judicial truth emerged despite the law of silence”for her part reacted Me Juliette Chapelle, lawyer for the victim’s family.
Read his portrait: Article reserved for our Afro-trap subscribers: MHD, hits and doubts
The Advocate General had estimated in his submissions that the facts for which the court was seized were located “on the high end of the criminological seriousness scale”, demanding heavy sentences against seven of the nine accused in this case. Saturday morning, the rapper proclaimed his innocence one last time, in front of a packed house, before the court retired to deliberate.
Several witnesses implicated the rapper
On the night of July 5 to 6, 2018, Loïc K., aged 23, died after being deliberately knocked down by a Mercedes in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, then beaten by around ten men and lacerated with blows. knife. The car was found a day later, burned in a parking lot. At the heart of the matter, a settling of scores between young people from the city of Chaufourniers, nicknamed the red city, and the neighboring city of Grange aux Belles, located in the 10th and 19th arrondissements.
In this case, several witnesses notably implicated the rapper MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla, originally from Chaufourniers. Investigators established that the burned Mercedes belonged to him and witnesses claimed to have seen him on board.
Furthermore, one of the videos of the scene, taken by a witness from an apartment, shows an African man with dyed blond hair, wearing a Puma tracksuit. However, at that time, MHD had peroxided hair and was an ambassador for the sportswear brand. Since the beginning of the facts, he has denied having been present at the scene of the crime.
“His position is the rumor which made it easy for the members of the Grange aux Belles group to say “it must be him””observed the Advocate General in his requisitions. “It was not through rumor that Mr. Sylla’s car was identified as that of the commission of facts”he added, listing all the evidence which he believes incriminates the rapper.
“Law of silence”
This affair clearly slowed down the career of MHD, pioneer of “afro-trap”, a mixture of hip-hop and African music, revealed in 2015 thanks to a video posted on YouTube which went viral, the starting point of a rise dazzling. From a pizza deliveryman, in a few months he became a recognized star not only in France but also abroad, where he was noticed by artists like Madonna and Drake. A “success story” put on hold by his arrest and his placement in pre-trial detention − he will remain incarcerated for a year and a half before being released under judicial supervision.
Read also: Rapper MHD, indicted for “intentional homicide”, was released under judicial supervision
Three men were acquitted on Saturday, the court considering that one of them, Wissem E. was not on the scene at the time of the crime, and that for the two others, Saber B. and Moussa K., she did not have sufficient evidence to convict them.
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This case was illustrated, throughout the investigations and then the debates at the trial, by the “law of silence” to which the accused, but also numerous witnesses, submitted. A large number of them, although summoned, did not appear in court. A law of silence dictated by “fear of reprisals”by the admission of several people.
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