Rapper Moha la Squale was tried on Thursday at the Paris Criminal Court for "contempt", "rebellion" and "refusal to comply".
Mohamed Bellahmed, whose real name was, was arrested on June 19, 2020 after a road check: he was indeed the subject of a search warrant, for refusal to comply aggravated after an urban rodeo a month earlier in the Ménilmontant district, on a pedestrian area where children played.
In his flight, he had failed to run over a little girl who was crossing the road with her mother.
A month later, behind the wheel of a big sedan, the rapper gold record had attracted the attention of a crew of three police officers, because he was not wearing a seat belt.
After an identity check, the officials wanted to arrest him, after discovering that he was wanted.
Moha la Squale had then fled by running, before being caught by the officials, then handcuffed to the ground, during a muscular arrest which had been partially filmed and broadcast on social networks.
"I had a broken rib"
In their complaint, the police accuse the rapper of having hit them, with nudges and punches, and of having treated them as "son of a bitch".
The officials had thirty, two and one ITT days respectively.
Moha la Squale, for his part, denies the beatings and insults.
At the helm, the rapper assures us that it was he who took the hits.
“I had a broken rib.
I had trouble breathing for three months, ”insists the rapper, Balenciaga white sneakers on his feet, gray hooded sweatshirt and luxury watch on the left wrist.
Moha la Squale affirms that he wore his seat belt well while driving his Mercedes.
If he ran away, it was because he was "afraid of the police".
In a video of the scene, projected at the audience, we hear him launch to the crowd: "I tried to vesqui [to dodge, Editor's note], they killed me".
Shoulders drooping and hands clasped in front of him, he bragged less, this Thursday, at the bar of the court: "I regret not having complied.
I respect the police.
I'm sorry for everything that happened.
I say that to the police ”.
An apology that struggles to convince the prosecutor.
“I am amazed at the positioning of Mr. Bellahmed, who shows himself at the helm very gently and with understanding.
It could almost have worked, but the facts are not those of someone who is afraid of the police, “lashes the magistrate.
She considers "intolerable" that the rapper "poses as a victim of the police services, while it is he who harms society".
Multiple convictions
Moha la Squale's lawyer, Me Élise Arfi, calls before the court to "restore a little order, reason and relativity".
“The facts are part of a problem that is debated today in public opinion: fear of the police.
I'm sorry, but at some point you'll have to hear it.
Some young people, when they see the police, they have the instinct to leave ”.
And the lawyer to deplore that, "obviously, the focal point is put on [his] client because he is known".
Moha La Squale was one of the great revelations of the year 2018 with his first album “Bendero”, acclaimed by the public (more than 50,000 copies sold) and by the critics.
Nominated for the Victoires de la musique 2019, the charismatic artist with long hair, passed by the Cours Florent, was spotted with “freestyles” posted on Facebook and YouTube, where we see him rapping in his kitchen or in his neighborhood of Ménilmontant.
At the hearing, the rapper admitted to living comfortably from his artistic activities, with income estimated "at 5,000 to 10,000 euros per month".
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"Because of her criminal record" - Moha la Squale's record contains multiple convictions, in particular for acts of violence, kidnapping, extortion… - and "the seriousness of the facts", the prosecutor requires a ten-month sentence. 'firm imprisonment, convertible in the form of wearing an electronic bracelet at home.
Requisitions "disconnected from reality", takes offense Me Élise Arfi.
"A bracelet sentence would prevent Mohamed from continuing his artistic activities", she fears, believing that a simple reprieve would be a sufficient sentence "for justice to be done".
The hearing was reserved for April 15.
