Despite his denials, he was found guilty of the murder of a 23-year-old man. The rapper MHD was sentenced this Saturday to 12 years in prison by the Assize Court of Paris for killing Loïc K., lynched as part of a settling of scores between rival Parisian gangs in 2018. He disputes the facts. Sentences of 10 to 18 years were handed down to 5 other co-accused. Three others were acquitted
The court, whose juror deliberated for long hours on Saturday, was less severe than the prosecution's submissions. The attorney general had asked Thursday for a sentence of 18 years in prison against the rapper. After three weeks of debate, he had considered that the facts before the court were "at the top of the scale of criminological gravity", demanding heavy sentences against seven of the nine accused in this case.
The defense of the rapper had pleaded Friday the acquittal, castigating a "judicial fiasco" and a file "built from a rumor". "This rumor, this trial, it would not have happened like this if it had not been him," regretted Antoine Vey, one of MHD's lawyers.
Account settlement
On the night of July 5 to 6, 2018, Loïc K., aged 23, died after being deliberately hit by a Mercedes in the tenth arrondissement of Paris, then beaten by a dozen men and stabbed. The car was found a day later, set on fire, in a parking lot.
At the heart of the case, a settling of accounts between young people from the city of Chaufourniers, nicknamed the red city, and the neighboring one of the Grange aux Belles, located in the tenth and nineteenth arrondissements.
In this case, several witnesses implicated the rapper MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla, from Les Chaufourniers. Investigators establish that the burned Mercedes belonged to him and witnesses claim to have seen it on board.
VIDEO. Who is MHD, this rapper accused of murder?
In addition, one of the videos of the scene, taken by a witness from an apartment, shows a man with dyed blonde hair, dressed in a Puma tracksuit. However, at that time, MHD had peroxidized hair and was an ambassador for the sportswear brand. He denies since the beginning of the facts to have been present at the scene of the crime.
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But for the Advocate General, the "participation in the murder" of MHD was established by the "analysis" of evidence "found elsewhere than at the crime scene". Jean-Christophe Muller has notably criticized the rapper, Mohamed Sylla of his real name, to constantly hide behind the "rumor" of city, which overwhelms him since the first days. "It is not by the effect of the rumor that Mr. Sylla's car was used to commit the facts, then set on fire," retorted the magistrate. For him, it is MHD who, on one of the videos of the scene, "pulls the victim by the feet at the end and kicks him twice, signing there his guilt".
