Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Alain JOCARD / AFP 14:45 pm, September 21, 2023
The rapper MHD appears this Thursday before the Assize Court of Paris for the murder of a young man, lynched as part of a settling of scores between rival gangs in 2018. The attorney general has requested 18 years in prison against the rapper, whose real name is Mohammed Sylla. He also sought sentences ranging from 13 to 20 years for six other co-defendants.18 years in prison were requested Thursday against the rapper MHD, tried before the Assize Court of Paris for the murder in Paris in 2018 of a young man, lynched as part of a settling of scores between rival gangs. The attorney general also requested 13 to 20 years' imprisonment for six other co-defendants, including the maximum sentence for one who is on the run and therefore tried in absentia. He also requested acquittal for two last men: one of them, Wissem E., had been exonerated by the investigators during the proceedings.
For the other, Moussa K., he considered that it was "unreasonable" to convict him in view of the elements put forward in the investigation to incriminate him. 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.
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Evidence would incriminate him
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 10th and 19th arrondissements. Several witnesses implicate the rapper MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla, resident of Chaufourniers. Investigators establish that the burned Mercedes belonged to him and witnesses claim to have seen it on board. In addition, one of the videos of the scene taken by a witness from an apartment shows an African-type man with dyed blonde hair, dressed in a Puma tracksuit.
At that time, MHD had peroxidized hair and was an ambassador for the sportswear brand. "His position is the rumor that, for convenience, the members of the group of the Grange aux Belles said it is necessarily him," observed the advocate general in his requisitions. "It is not by the effect of the rumor that Mohammed Sylla's car was identified as that of the commission of the facts," he added, listing all the evidence that he believes incriminates the rapper.
Defense lawyers are scheduled to begin pleading Thursday afternoon.