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Rabat (AFP) – Moroccan rapper ElGrande Toto was taken into custody on Monday night, following a number of complaints filed towards him for public statements he made about utilizing hashish, a judicial supply mentioned.
The Casablanca-born rapper, who’s an enormous star within the Arabic-speaking music world, had in late September informed reporters who gathered after considered one of his live shows, “I smoke hash — so what?… It doesn’t imply I set a foul instance.”
His feedback sparked an outcry in Morocco, and the 26-year-old was on Thursday forbidden from leaving the territory by authorities and was additionally summoned by the police in Casablanca.
A prosecutor of a Casablanca court docket on late Monday determined to position Taha Fahssi — ElGrande Toto’s actual title — in custody after complaints had been filed by “three artists, a journalist, and a policeman”, a judicial supply informed AFP on situation of anonymity.
In line with each day newspaper Le Matin, the rapper is the topic of a preliminary investigation that may deal with all his publications, digital content material and statements “more likely to include components punishable by regulation”.
He was taken into custody a day after he made a public apology for his off-the-cuff feedback.
“I provide my apologies to anybody offended by my phrases, beginning with the authorities and my public,” ElGrande Toto informed a packed press convention Sunday in Rabat.
“This controversy was not deliberate — it simply obtained too huge, and it is a good lesson for me.”
After ElGrande Toto made his feedback on September 23, a Belgium-based journalist lodged a criticism accusing him of “incitement to eat medicine”, mentioned the journalist’s lawyer, Mohamed Karrout.
The rapper was essentially the most in demand Arab artist within the Maghreb in 2021 on Spotify, with greater than 50 million downloads. His YouTube channel in the meantime maintains 2.7 million subscribers, with in style movies drawing tens of hundreds of thousands of views.
© 2022 AFP
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