Rapper Booba was placed on Wednesday April 5 under the status of assisted witness in one of the legal proceedings with the agent of influencers Magali Berdah, according to concordant sources.
Booba is accused of having relayed elements of his judicial past.
Heard from Miami by videoconference, the rapper, Élie Yaffa of his real name, "
was placed under the status of witness assisted Monday by the investigating judge investigating in particular the facts of fraudulent collection and disclosure of personal data
", a a judicial source confirmed to AFP on Wednesday.
A replay on Twitter
This procedure mainly concerns Léandro JP, a man suspected of having posted on YouTube confidential information on the judicial past of personalities, via the Criminal History Processing file (TAJ), recovered from police stations by pretending to be a police officer.
The person concerned, then aged 33, was indicted in early September in Paris for various offenses, and placed in pre-trial detention.
Among the personalities who would have been victims, Magali Berdah.
In her complaint sent in August, she notably targeted Booba, accusing him of having rebroadcast on Twitter the elements already disclosed by Léandro JP.
Cyberbullying framework
"
The justice considered that the complaint of (Magali Berdah) was unfounded
", welcomed the council of the rapper from Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), Me Samuel Habib, in a statement to AFP.
Me Rachel Flore Pardo and Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez, lawyers for Magali Berdah, "
take note
" of this decision.
This intermediate status of assisted witness, which rules out any possible trial concerning him, can be revised at any time during the judicial investigation if " serious or consistent
" indications
of the rapper's participation in the offense should appear.
Magali Berdah's accusations in this case are part of broader denunciations on her part concerning the cyberharassment to which she is subject, and of which she accuses the rapper of being the conductor.
On this, an investigation has been open since June 1 at the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate (PNLH) of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, in particular for death threats, harassment by means of electronic communication, public insult on account of the origin and sex.
Read also“Everything can stop at any time”: the risky bet of young people who drop everything to become influencers
A "relentlessness"
At least 17 people are to be tried soon by the Paris Criminal Court.
"
We are now waiting for Mr. Yaffa to finally be heard
" on these facts by investigators from the Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), added Magali Berdah's lawyers.
According to several sources familiar with the matter, Booba has still not been heard in this procedure, despite two summonses.
“
Mr. Yaffa of course wants to defer to his summons.
Except that he noticed, and this is what I also see, irregularities in the procedure and a certain relentlessness against him
, ”criticized Me Habib.
“
He is naturally willing to be heard in any proceedings
” by videoconference from Miami, added the lawyer.
