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Rapper Bushido in the Berlin Regional Court (in August 2020): Delivered to the clan
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
"Leave me alone" - "leave me alone" - is written in capital letters on the black jacket that Anis Ferchichi, alias Bushido, wears on that day in room 500 of the Berlin Regional Court.
The label goes very well with the rapper's message to the four defendants.
Bushido is the most important witness against Arafat Abou-Chaker and his brothers Yasser, Nasser and Rommel.
The rapper Bushido and the clan boss Arafat Abou-Chaker were business partners for around 14 years.
They made millions.
But if what Bushido says before the Berlin district court is true, then it was a forced collaboration, a kind of forced marriage.
In autumn 2017, the rapper rebelled.
He told Abou-Chaker that he wanted to end the relationship and asked him to look for a way to break up together.
He wanted to break away from Arafat Abou-Chaker.
“Leave me alone”, so to speak.
But Abou-Chaker did not want to let him go.
"It's about a lot of money," Bushido told the court on Wednesday, "and about reputation." Abou-Chaker put him off for months.
On January 18, 2018, the clan boss finally ordered him to the joint office.
And what, according to Bushido, should have happened there for over four and a half hours, constitutes the main accusation of the indictment against Abou-Chaker.
He'd only get out alive if he told the truth
Arafat Abou-Chaker is said to have freaked out.
He is said to have locked the office from the inside and then threatened, insulted and attacked Bushido, Bushido says.
He reportedly hit him with a plastic bottle and threw a chair at him.
Bushido had already said all of this on the last day of the trial last year.
On this first day of the hearing in the new year, the assessing judge wants to hear everything again very carefully.
She asks for details.
Was it unusual for Abou-Chaker to lock the door?
How did Bushido feel about being locked in?
How did he react?
"It wasn't clear to me from the start that this could be dangerous," replies Bushido.
At first he thought that Abou-Chaker simply wanted to prevent anyone from breaking into the conversation.
Until that moment when Arafat's brother Yasser, who was also in the office, told him that he, Bushido, would only come out of the room alive if he told them the truth.
What truth? Asks the judge.
Good question, says Bushido, even at first he didn't understand what they wanted from him.
Then he realized that Arafat believed or still believes Abou-Chaker that another Berlin clan was behind Bushido's sudden rebellion.
"Or I'll keep paying until the end of my life"
Abou-Chaker was upset about Bushido's close contact with Ashraf Rammo.
It sounds as if Abou-Chaker thought that Bushido wanted to switch from the Abou-Chaker to the Rammo clan.
"This is nonsense, this is nonsense," he, Bushido, tried to calm Abou-Chaker.
He is friends with Ashraf Rammo.
But: "My relationship with any other person never influenced my wanting the business and then also the private separation from Arafat."
Abou-Chaker called Bushido a traitor and a liar and told him: "I am his property, I belong to him." A separation is only possible on Abou-Chaker's terms.
He will think of a price for Bushido's freedom.
"Either I accept it or I will continue to pay until the end of my life," the Abou-Chakers would have given him before this choice.
In the dock, Arafat Abou-Chaker follows Bushido's remarks with increasing anxiety.
Abou-Chaker looks like he can't believe what he's hearing.
Again and again he laughs mockingly, shakes his head, exchanges glances with his brothers.
What Abou-Chaker, the silent accused, wants to signal becomes clear even without words: Bushido tells fairy tales.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel PlusBushido as a witness in the Abou Chaker process: "I know of at least one gun" By Wiebke Ramm, Berlin
Bushido as a witness in the Abou Chaker trial: "Then let's see what kind of gangsta rapper you are" Von Wiebke Ramm
Trial and raid against clan chief: Arafat Abou-Chaker senses a plot by Wiebke Ramm
The judge asks further.
Now for the chair that should have flown at some point.
Was it a targeted attack by Arafat Abou-Chacker on Bushido or a rather undirected outburst of anger?
"That was a reaction of anger directed against me," says Bushido.
"The chair should hit me." But he was able to duck back so that the chair only brushed against him.
The judge also asks about the sentence that Abou-Chaker is said to have said and that Bushido claims to have understood as the ultimate threat.
“I'm going to fuck your father.
Then I'll fuck your mother.
Then I'll fuck your wife.
Then I'll fuck your children.
And when I'm done with that, I'll fuck you. ”It might be a strange question, says the judge, but what exactly is meant by this verb?
Joy in the hall.
He was ready to pay 1.8 million for his freedom
"This does not mean the physical act," explains Bushido.
“Arafat meant to say that he has no respect for any border.
He made it very clear to me that there was no limit to his reaction. «Only when the chief public prosecutor asked again did Bushido speak plainly.
“I seriously feared that my family would be in danger if I didn't follow his orders.” And that's exactly why he and his family had been under personal protection for around two years.
And that's why he was ready to pay Abou-Chaker 1.8 million euros for his freedom.
Out of concern for his family.
It's a short day of the trial.
At around 1 p.m., the presiding judge interrupts the hearing.
In the future, the court no longer wants to negotiate until the afternoon due to Corona.
A defender of Arafat Abou-Chaker had previously expressed concern that the process could become a "superspreader event".
He had asked the court about protective measures.
"We drive on sight," replies the judge.
If the pandemic situation worsens, the negotiation could be interrupted for three weeks.
First, it should continue on Monday with Bushido's statement.
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