The Nice public prosecutor's office has opened a preliminary investigation for condoning terrorism against the controversial rapper Freeze Corleone, who appears to evoke the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in a song, we learned on Saturday from a judicial source.
“This is an investigation taken on initiative,” Nice prosecutor Damien Martinelli told AFP, while several local elected officials had expressed their indignation on social networks.
The current investigation has been entrusted to the interdepartmental direction of the Alpes-Maritimes national police and the National Directorate of the Judicial Police, he said.
Indignation of elected officials
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, announced his intention to file a complaint on Friday, denouncing “a despicable provocation” on the social network Threads.
Éric Ciotti, president of LR and deputy for the 1st constituency of Alpes-Maritimes, estimated on X (ex-Twitter) that a “new step towards the infamous has been taken”.
Another step towards infamous has been taken by rapper Freeze Corleone.
This insinuation about the Nice attack is filthy.
86 angels were mowed down by an Islamist barbarian.
This rapper must be prosecuted for advocating terrorism!
pic.twitter.com/DTvJglu9CS
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) February 9, 2024
Saying he was "horrified", Jean-Claude Hubler, founder of the victims' association Life for Nice, told AFP that he had, for his part, instructed his lawyer to file a complaint for "apology of terrorism".
The term “Promenade des Anglais” not pronounced
In this song, “Haaland”, performed as a duet with the rapper Luciano and released on Thursday, a passage seems to allude to the attack of July 14, 2016: “In defense I'm Kalidou, you're Lenglet.
Burberry like an English grandfather.
I arrive in rap like a truck bombing flat out on the…”, even if the term “Promenade des Anglais” is not pronounced.
The attack committed on the Promenade des Anglais by a Tunisian living in Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who had driven into the crowd aboard a heavy goods vehicle following an operating method recommended by the Islamic State organization, killed 86 people and injured hundreds of others.
The author was killed by the police, but eight people considered accomplices were sentenced in 2022 to terms of two to 18 years in prison by the Special Assize Court in Paris.
An appeal trial is due to begin in April.
An investigation in 2020 for “provocation of racial hatred”
A prominent figure in French rap, Freeze Corleone (real name Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté), had already been the subject of an investigation in 2020 for “provoking racial hatred” after the broadcast of clips containing lyrics such as “ I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s” or “every day RAF (nothing to worry about) the Shoah”.
The investigation was finally closed, but he was dropped by his label Universal Music, denouncing “unacceptable racist comments”.