The endless process between Bushido and Arafat Abou-Chaker and his three brothers has been going on for almost two years now. Now the 38th Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court has drawn a first interim conclusion. And the gangsta rapper shouldn’t like that at all. Because the “rough[n] According to Judge Martin Mrosk’s “preliminary assessment”, most of the charges against the Abou-Chakers do not appear to be particularly valid.
In 2017, Bushido said goodbye to Arafat Abou-Chaker, with whom he had worked for years. According to the indictment, Arafat Abou-Chaker then threatened the rapper, demanded millions of dollars and locked him in a room on January 18, 2018 and attacked him with a 0.5-liter plastic water bottle and a chair. The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin then brought charges against Arafat Abou-Chaker, mainly on the grounds of aggravated extortion, deprivation of liberty and dangerous bodily harm.
Bushido vs. Abou-Chaker: prosecution on shaky feet?
In court, however, the story increasingly crumbled. In the eyes of the court, the charge of serious extortion from robbery does not seem very solid at the moment, since Arafat Abou-Chaker could have had reasons to believe in January 2018 that Bushido still owed him money. Even Bushido testified in court that he assumed for a long time that he still had money to pay to Arafat Abou-Chaker. Therefore, Abou-Chaker cannot be assumed that he wanted to illegally enrich himself with Bushido.
The charge of deprivation of liberty, which relates to the events of January 18, 2018, also appears unfounded on closer inspection. Although Arafat Abou-Chaker locked the door for the joint conversation with Bushido, it was a general practice of the clan boss to be able to talk undisturbed with his interlocutors. According to the court, such behavior is not unusual in confidential contract negotiations. For his part, Bushido probably didn’t even express the desire to leave the room. Instead, a mutual friend of Bushido and Arafat Abou-Chaker would have offered to leave the room with him. However, the rapper declined.
On the other hand, the court did not comment more specifically on the alleged attack on Bushido with a water bottle and a chair, this charge seems to have the best chance of success for Bushido. However, the court found that it currently does not believe that there was any collusion between the Abou Chaker siblings to hit the gangsta rapper. During the conversation, Nasser Abou-Chaker had a de-escalating effect on his brother Arafat Abou-Chaker, a fact that Bushido also confirmed in court.
Closest witness: Kay One
The senior prosecutor Petra Leisner, like Bushido’s lawyer, did not agree with the interim conclusion. Of the Berlin newspaper she said: “Of course, I see it completely differently, especially as far as the offense of deprivation of liberty is concerned.” She announced a statement, but would like to wait for the next testimony beforehand. Kay One, who worked with Bushido for a long time until he separated from him in 2012, is invited to the next day of negotiations. This was followed by some disstracks from both sides, of which Bushido’s “Leben und Tod des Kenneth Glöckler” in particular achieved a kind of legendary status in the German rap scene.
On the 71st day of the trial, when the court took stock, Bushido was not in the courtroom. The Abou-Chakers present were pleased with the first assessment, which was favorable for them, but avoided overconfident declarations of triumph. The “Berliner Zeitung said Arafat Abou-Chaker: “We must all come out of this with an acquittal.” Things aren’t looking too bad for him at the moment.