Le Figaro Nantes
An unsurprising verdict, similar in every way to the canceled concert last December.
The Nantes administrative court confirmed on Wednesday the decision of the Loire-Atlantique prefecture to ban a concert by rapper Freeze Corleone planned for the evening at the Zenith in Nantes, and already postponed due to a previous ban.
“The serious risk of comments likely to seriously undermine respect for fundamental values and principles, particularly the dignity of the human person (...) exists, even though it is part of a tense context with regard to the Jewish community in France
,” we can read in the decision.
The rapper's lawyer, Maître Sanjay Mirabeau, who had referred the matter to the judge, notes that
"the order says that Freeze Corleone will not sing even if the judicial judge considers that there is no criminal offense"
.
“The artist must be silent and that’s it
,” he reacted to AFP.
“Nothing to give a damn about the Shoah”
The prefecture had justified this new ban by explaining that
“the musical productions of this artist are known for its anti-Semitic and hateful references against the Jewish community”
.
At the beginning of December, a first ban on Freeze Corleone's Nantes concert was validated by the administrative court.
The concert was postponed until February 28 pending a decision from the Council of State, contacted by the rapper's lawyer, but which was unable to rule, the appeal having been filed a few hours before the performance.
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“This concert on February 28, 2024 in Loire-Atlantique takes place in a geopolitical context that is still extremely tense following the
terrorist attack launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023
in Israel and in a context of very high level terrorist threat
,” writes the prefecture.
In mid-February, the courts validated the Rhône prefecture's ban on a Freeze Corleone concert in Lyon, the day after a similar decision in Lille.
In Paris, administrative justice allowed two dates to be held at the Zénith in November.
Aged 31, Freeze Corleone, real name Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté, is the target of a preliminary investigation by the Nice public prosecutor's office for "
apology of terrorism"
for a song appearing to evoke the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in 2016. In 2020 , Freeze Corleone has already been the subject of an investigation, closed without further action, for
"provocation of racial hatred"
after clips containing lyrics such as
"I arrive determined like Adolf in the 30s"
or
"all the RAF (nothing to do with it) days
of the Holocaust
.
”
Denouncing
“unacceptable racist remarks”
, his label Universal Music announced the end of their collaboration.