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Arafat Abou-Chaker on the way to the Tiergarten district court.
Reason for the not entirely voluntary visit: It is about a process start. Because the 44-year-old clan chief and three of his brothers - so the allegation, are said to have locked up, threatened and beaten the rapper Bushido.
The case reads like the script for an early evening series: Bushido had broken business relations with the Abou-Chakers. The main defendant should not have accepted that. He asked Bushido to repay alleged debts or to participate in his music business. It's about millions of dollars - a court spokeswoman sums up the charges against the four men:
Lisa Jani, court
spokeswoman The accused are accused of attempted blackmail, deprivation of liberty, dangerous bodily harm, coercion, insult, infidelity and other things. Among other things, they are said to have locked the joint plaintiffs in offices for talks. That would actually be a deprivation of liberty. They are said to have thrown a half-full water bottle at his head and also hit them with a chair to get their way. The co-plaintiff Bushido offered several million as a transfer fee and wanted to call on lawyers. The accused would not have wanted that and would have continued to try to enforce unjustified claims.
The indictment is 20 pages long. It says that the "voice artist Bushido", whose real name is Anis Ferchichi, felt acutely threatened by the meeting and feared in particular for his wife and children.
Lisa Jani, court
spokeswoman It was originally planned to hear him as a witness on the next day of the trial, the day after tomorrow. As far as I know, this has now been postponed again because the defense asked to sift through further material beforehand.
The hearing today lasted only 53 minutes, the defendants were silent and did not want to comment on the allegations for the time being. Initially, more than 20 days of negotiations are scheduled until the end of November. 80 witnesses were named, including several well-known rappers.