Rapper Bushido as a witness in court: Legal trouble after testimony
Photo: PAUL ZINKEN / AFPThe founders of the music label Aggro Berlin accuse Bushido of telling the untruth in court. The rapper, real name Anis Ferchichi, is a joint plaintiff and at the same time the most important witness in the trial against Arafat Abou-Chaker and three of his brothers before the Berlin Regional Court. The Aggro Berlin founders Jens Ihlenfeldt ("Spaiche"), Eric Remberg ("Specter") and Halil Efe have asked Bushido through their lawyer not to repeat two of his statements. Aggro Berlin has demanded a cease and desist from the rapper.
Arafat Abou-Chaker is charged with allegedly beating, imprisoning and threatening Bushido, among other things. The background is a falling out between the two previous business partners. At the request of the presiding judge, Bushido first spoke about the beginning of his career on Wednesday. He reported how proud he was when Aggro Berlin signed him as an artist. Then he told why he finally wanted to part with the label.
Bushido said that Halil Efe suddenly claimed to have already bought the so-called master rights to his "King of Kingz" album from him. "That was complete nonsense," said Bushido in court. He only sold 1,000 copies to them, not all of the rights. Bushido named this as the reason why he decided in 2003 to part with Aggro Berlin. Both sides called on their lawyers. After all, according to Bushido, Aggro Berlin demanded 400,000 euros and a six percent stake in its next four albums.
"At no point in time claimed a payment of EUR 400,000"
Warning from Aggro Berlin
Aggro Berlin contradicts Bushido’s statements. In the warning that SPIEGEL has received, it is said that Aggro Berlin "never claimed to have acquired the master rights to the album 'King of Kingz'. All accounts were verifiably correct and as agreed". Also "at no point in time has a payment of 400,000 euros been claimed". Bushido should sign the punishable cease and desist declaration by Friday evening. According to SPIEGEL information, he did not do that.
"As you know, these allegations do not correspond to the facts", it says in the letter of the Aggro Berlin lawyer to Bushido. "You came up with these claims in order to place our clients in an unfavorable light". Bushido's representation is "a fictional justification" for the task of the contract. It is a matter of "false statements of fact" which are, among other things, damaging to the business of the Aggro Berlin founders.
Lawyer Steffen Tzschoppe, who represents Bushido in the trial against Abou-Chaker, did not want to comment on the allegations against his client on Sunday. "We are not giving an opinion on this at the moment," he said in response to a request from SPIEGEL. He also did not want to comment on a lawsuit that the Aggro Berlin founders brought against Bushido.
Aggro Berlin accuses Bushido of insulting
The lawsuit, which is available to SPIEGEL, was received by the Berlin Regional Court in December 2019. The matter will not be heard before a civil chamber until next spring.
Aggro Berlin defends itself with the lawsuit against several allegations that Bushido is supposed to have made in his autobiography and in a book that was enclosed with his CD fan box "Mythos". The movie "Times change you", in which Bushido plays himself, is also mentioned. Aggro Berlin wants to have the reproduction and distribution of a large number of statements legally prohibited. The plaintiffs are asserting injunctive relief and claims for damages. They also accuse Bushido of insulting them.
On the 19 pages of the lawsuit, Bushido's alleged misrepresentation appears several times that Halil Efe claimed that Bushido had sold him the master rights to "King of Kingz". Other statements that Bushido made in court on Wednesday can also be found in the document and are called untrue by Aggro Berlin.
And it is also about the day in May 2004 on which Arafat Abou-Chaker ensured that Aggro Berlin signed a contract termination with Bushido. After portraying Aggro Berlin, Bushido came to the studio with Arafat Abou-Chaker and about six other men. One of the men had "a machete-like knife" with him. The spokesman was Arafat Abou-Chaker. "Under threat of violence against life and limb" he is said to have first forced "Specter" to sign a termination agreement he had brought with him. When Halil Efe arrived, he was slapped in the face. Efe also signed the contract, but not with his name, but with "hayir", the Turkish word for "no". Then "Spaiche" appeared in the studio. And he was also threatened with violence, so that he too signed. This is what your lawyer describes in the application.
Aggro Berlin defends itself against the fact that Bushido presents "the attack", as it is called in the lawsuit, in public "as a kind of self-defense" and the label founders "as greedy rip-offs" who have bound him to themselves by a "gag contract". This is not the truth.
In the trial against Abou-Chaker, Bushido is expected to comment this Monday on how and why Arafat Abou-Chaker came into his life and how exactly he managed to get Aggro Berlin to sign the dissolution contract.
Icon: The mirror