The rape trial of rapper Naps confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal

“There’s my face in the newspaper, I went to court. » The song “En détente” by Naps was released in 2019. And five years later, the Marseille artist is indeed making headlines in the media due to his legal affairs. The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Tuesday the referral of rapper Naps for rape, before the departmental criminal court, suspected of having raped a young woman while she slept in the fall of 2021, AFP learned from a judicial source.

The investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal also kept him under judicial supervision, said the same source. “Naps will appear at his trial with complete peace of mind, with the same state of mind that was his during the investigation,” assured his lawyer Nabil Boudi, contacted by AFP.

A young woman “awakened by sexual intercourse”

The council had appealed the order made by an investigating judge in May: the magistrate ordered that the author of the hit “La kiffance”, widely followed on social networks with a million subscribers to his Instagram account , be tried for rape.

This case began with a complaint in October 2021. “A young woman explained having spent the evening of the day before in an establishment in the 9th arrondissement” of the capital, then “having been invited with friends to the rapper’s table”, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

“They then followed him to his room in a hotel near the Gare de Lyon, which was gradually left by the rapper’s friends.” “The young women had fallen asleep and one said she was awakened by sexual intercourse to which she had not consented,” the prosecution continued.

Tuesday, the court of appeal “validated all the charges brought after three years of investigations and which therefore justify the holding of a trial before the criminal court”, underlined Me Jean-Baptiste Boué-Diacquenod who represents the civil party.

Three other complaints

Other investigations also target Naps, whose real name is Nabil Boukhobza, in the Var: three women filed complaints against him and the singer was indicted in August for rape and sexual assault.

On the criminal side, the world of French rap has been marked by several cases of sexual violence, with strong media coverage. Moha La Squale, whose first album “Bendero” went gold in 2018, was accused of rape and sexual assault in a judicial investigation, but ultimately benefited from a dismissal of the case. The ex-star, whose real name is Mohamed Bellahmed, was also sentenced at the beginning of July by the Paris Criminal Court to four years’ imprisonment, one of which was suspended, for domestic violence, kidnapping and death threats against six ex-partners.

Rapper Lomepal is the target of a preliminary investigation in Paris. At least three women have filed rape complaints against him. The thirty-year-old, whose real name is Antoine Valentinelli, denies it. Placed in police custody at the beginning of March and confronted by two of the complainants, he was released without being prosecuted at this stage. Investigations continue.