Rapper did not show up to testify, fined 3,000 euros

At the opening of the hearing on September 9, Julien Mari, known as Jul, had requested an exemption from attending the hearing in a letter from his lawyer, stating that he was abroad for professional reasons. But for the victim’s lawyer, it was important to hear from him as a witness because he was “his friend” and had spent the hours before the tragedy with him. “Even if he thinks his notoriety puts him above the criminal court, he should be with us,” said Me Ménya Arab-Tigrine.

Two people were sentenced

The chief prosecutor, Christophe Raffin, described how he had ignored his absence at the first hearing in 2023, but this time he requested a fine for his absence. The court was even prepared to hear him by video conference if it was in the same time zone as France. And the president had also ordered a police team to go to his house and ask him to appear.

The rapper’s manager at the time, Karim Tir, 30, was killed by two men on a motorbike outside a metro station in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine), near Paris, on June 12, 2014. In March 2023, the Bouches-du-Rhône High Criminal Court sentenced Mohamed Seghier, 45, and Juan Marti, 41, to 25 years in prison for the assassination by an organised gang. The two men had appealed their convictions and will therefore face an appeal in the case, which ends on Friday.

The rap world is regularly plagued by acts of violence. At the end of August, two relatives of another Marseille rapper, SCH, were targeted after leaving a concert at a nightclub in La Grande-Motte. One of them was killed and the other was seriously injured.