French ‘Afro-tap’ rapper to stand trial for role in gangland murder

The popular French rapper MHD has been ordered to stand trial over the beating and death of a 23-year-old man in Paris during a suspected settling of scores between rival gangs three years ago, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Published: 13 November 2021 08:56 CET

French 'Afro-tap' rapper to stand trial for role in gangland murder

The rapper MHD performs at the Vieilles Charrues music festival in Carhaix-Plouguer back in 2017. Photo: Fred Tanneau/AFP

The 27-year-old, who rose to fame with a distinctive blend of west African sounds with US-style hip-hop, was charged with homicide in January 2019 and imprisoned.

He has denied taking part in the assault, which saw the victim rammed by a black Mercedes and then beaten up and stabbed by around a dozen people in a gritty part of the capital’s 10th arrondissement.

But a local resident filmed the incident from his window, and the Mercedes was quickly identified as belonging to MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla.

Other witnesses identified the rapper by his haircut or a Puma sweatshirt, for which he was a brand ambassador, according to investigative reports seen by AFP.

He was released in the summer of 2020 after a year-and-a-half in custody as the investigations continued, and has since released a new album of his “afro-tap” music. Seven other people will also stand trial over the killing.

The football-mad performer, who was born in France to Guinean and Senegalese parents, is best known for “Afro Trap Part. 3 (Champions League)”, a song in praise of the Paris Saint-Germain football club.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.