Since the summer of 2020, the court has been dealing with the allegations against rapper Bushido’s longtime manager. Now a secretly recorded sound document triggers considerable research that could lead to a spectacular trial in Dresden.
Rapper Bushido has already testified as a witness in the trial against his former business partner for 25 days – now more could be added. In connection with a sound document that appeared during the proceedings before the Berlin district court, the musician should be questioned again, as the presiding judge Martin Mrosk said on Monday.
Before that, the audio file should be written down, which is said to have been made secretly at a meeting between the rapper and his ex-manager that was decisive for the process. An expert should also check the authenticity of the recording.
The process with the musician as a joint plaintiff is about deprivation of liberty, attempted severe extortion, coercion, dangerous bodily harm and insult. Bushido’s longtime manager, a Berlin clan boss, is said to have committed the crimes together with three brothers to the detriment of the musician. According to the rapper, whose real name is Anis Mohamed Ferchichi, Arafat Abou-Chaker and his brothers are said to have locked him up, insulted, threatened and injured him on January 18, 2018. According to a report in Stern magazine, which was the first to report on the audio file, the illegally recorded sound recording paints a different picture.
Bushido’s lawyer doubted their authenticity in the process: “In my view, it is at least a falsified file,” said Steffen Tzschoppe. He sees many questions in connection with the audio file, such as: Is the recording that the court has meanwhile received the same as that on which the “Stern” report is based? Where is the recording from? Tzschoppe suspects that recordings of the two-hour file, according to the report, could have been edited. Unlike other illegal recordings, the file was not found on the clan chief’s confiscated mobile phone.
In order to substantiate his client’s description, Tzschoppe also relies on GPS data from a rental car that Bushido drove on the day of the meeting with the clan boss and returned shortly afterwards in 2018. This car has since been confiscated in connection with another criminal case – the spectacular theft of jewels from the Green Vault in Dresden in November 2019.
This case of suspected clan crime has been under discussion in the local district court since the end of January. Six men between the ages of 22 and 28 are accused. They were caught in several raids in Berlin and are charged with aggravated gang theft, arson and particularly aggravated arson.
also read
► Discussion about recording in the Bushido process stopped
► Entry ban for Bushido’s most dangerous witnesses
You can ask the Dresden district court to make the data carriers of the car available, said senior prosecutor Petra Leister in the Berlin trial. In the run-up to the day of the trial, she had already researched the judiciary in the Saxon state capital. Normally, GPS data would not be stored for such a long period of time. “But you should look it up,” said Leister.
The Berlin regional court has not yet decided whether the data should be requested from Dresden. It initially wants to continue the process this Wednesday with the hearing of rapper Fler as a witness.