Bushido against Abou-Chaker: Berlin public prosecutor’s office gives up

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The trial of the rapper Bushido against Arafat Abou-Chaker was a media spectacle with 114 days of proceedings before the Berlin district court. Eight months ago it ended with a lenient sentence. Again star reported, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office has given up and will not appeal against the verdict – as announced. “After examining the reasons for the judgment, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is withdrawing the appeal and complaint in its entirety,” she said in response to a request from star with.

In its judgment, the regional court had the written justification for it star now reported for the first time, “insurmountable doubts about the truthfulness” of the statements made by the witness and co-plaintiff Anis Ferchichi alias Bushido are presented. Ferchichi’s civil proceedings against his former business partner Abou Chaker in the dispute over the division of the “community assets amounting to millions” are seen as the motive for a “false charge”.

“The main hearing did not confirm the allegations,” says the Berlin Regional Court. “None of the witnesses” confirmed Anis Ferchichi’s statements about alleged demands for money, being locked in an office and being hit with a water bottle on January 18, 2018 – with the exception of his wife Anna-Maria Ferchichi. The judges wrote about her: “Her statement was characterized by an excessive eagerness to incriminate people,” and she “dramatized and exaggerated” individual facts.

Bushido and Arafat Abou-Chaker: Secretly recorded conversations

An almost two-hour tape recording that clearly contradicts Bushido’s descriptions of the events of January 18, 2018 and the existence of which star had revealed at the time, the court did not consider it as evidence. Bushido’s lawyer had claimed it was fake and edited together. The court had the recording examined by an expert who was unable to prove that it was a forgery. The court was also not convinced “that the recording realistically depicts the entire event.” Bushido had claimed to have been harassed for about four hours in Abou-Chaker’s office.

Another secret recording of Abou-Chaker’s conversation, however, was important for the verdict – even without authenticity checks: It documented a meeting in January 2018 in a restaurant with Bushido and his wife. According to the court’s opinion, the witness Ferchichi presented the content and the situation of the conversation in several points very differently than what was heard in the main hearing. Instead of “his alleged great fear and intimidation,” the conversation took place “verbally at eye level.”

According to the court, the witness’s entire behavior during the separation phase from Abou-Chaker was “contrary to his statements.” He presented himself as psychologically broken and broken, as a father in fear for his family. Nevertheless, his underage children were “virtually displayed” without pixels in a documentary about the separation from Abou-Chaker and the court proceedings. The chamber sees this “as very strange”.

With the public prosecutor’s decision, the verdict becomes final and a remarkable chapter in Berlin’s judicial history ends. Judicial circles estimate the costs of the proceedings at 500,000 euros – without the costs for years of personal protection for the Ferchichi family. Michael Petzold from the Berlin public prosecutor’s office said it was “not to be expected” that another criminal chamber would come to a different conclusion. “The legal peace should be satisfied and the matter should be ended from here.”

This end is a bitter defeat for senior public prosecutor Petra Leister, who was previously celebrated in the media as a “clan hunter” for her fight against organized crime. She had relied on Bushido and requested more than four years in prison for Abou-Chaker. He was only convicted of making illegal cell phone recordings of conversations. Abou-Chaker still had no criminal record. Leister went into appeal.