Tunisian rappers convicted of “insulting public servants” after concert arrest

04 Sep 13 | News and features, Tunisia

Two Tunisian rappers  Aladine Yacoubi (aka Weld EL 15)  and Ahmed Ben Ahmed (aka  Klay BBJ) have been sentenced in absentia to 21 months in jail. A court in Hammamet issued the verdict on 29 August without summoning the two rappers to appear for trial, their lawyer Ghazi Mrabet said yesterday.

“We are surprised by this verdict…Our clients have not been summoned for trial as it is stipulated by law,” Mrabet told the privately-owned radio station Mosaique FM. They were found guilty of “insulting civil servants”, “undermining public decency” and defamation.

On 22 August, police arrested the  two rappers as they were on stage performing a rap concert at a music festival in Hammamet and physically assaulted them. They were detained, for “targeting police’ in their songs, the local chief police officer told the collective blog Nawaat.

Last June, Weld El 15 received a two-year jail sentence over his “Police Are Dogs” (Boulicia Kleb) song posted on the internet. The 25 year-old was freed on appeal, when his sentence was reduced to six-month suspended sentence. According to his lawyer, Weld EL15  did not perform Boulicia Kleb at the Hammamet concert.

Klay BBJ is also known for his staunch criticism of police, the judiciary, the Tunisian legal system and the entire political class (the ruling coalition and the opposition). His songs  include: iNo Pasaran! , Al Motamaridoun (the rebels) and Sayb15 (Free15) in support of Weld EL 15 when he was in prison.

“I will speak to my clients to challenge this ruling, but jail sentences demonstrate that the relentless campaign against artistic freedom, freedom of expression, continues”, rappers’ lawyer Ghazi Mrabet told AFP. Thameur Mekki, a journalist head of a support group for the rap artists described the verdict as a “revenge”. “The authorities have not understood that these matters should give rise to public debate, not trials and the permanent harassment of rappers”, he added.

Tunisian rapper jailed for anti-police song

24 Jun 13 | Middle East and North Africa, Politics and Society, Religion and Culture

Tunisian rapper Alaa Yacoub has been sent two prison for two years for an anti-police song. Sara Yasin reports

The rapper, who performs under the name Weld 15, has been accused of threatening police officers with a song he posted online called Boulicia Kleb (the police are dogs).

Yacoub was in hiding when he was initially sentenced to two years in prison in March. The rapper came out of hiding for his one-day retrial earlier this month in Tunis, in the hopes that he would receive a more relaxed sentence for turning himself in, according to the BBC.

In the video, Yacoub sings that “he would like to slaughter a police officer instead of sheep at Eid al-Adha”. In response to accusations that he was “inciting violence against the police”, Yacoub told Nawaat in March that he was “subject to all forms of police violence: physical and verbal. As an artist, I can only answer them through my art: aggressive art.”

The charges brought against Yacoub were brought under “anti-free speech laws inherited from the dictatorship era”, according to Index contributor Afef Abrougi. Anyone violating Article 128 of Tunisia’s Penal Code could face up to two years in prison for “accusing without proof a public official.”