The rapper is the target of several complaints from the high priestess of influencers Magali Berdah, one of which accuses him of having relayed elements of his judicial past. Booba was placed on Monday under the status of assisted witness in this procedure, AFP learned on Wednesday from concordant sources.
Heard from Miami by videoconference, the rapper, Élie Yaffa of his real name, “was placed under the status of witness assisted Monday by the investigating judge investigating in particular the facts of fraudulent collection and disclosure of personal data”, a confirmed on Wednesday a judicial source. This procedure mainly concerns Léandro JP, a man suspected of having posted on YouTube confidential information on the judicial past of personalities, via the Criminal History Processing file (TAJ), recovered from police stations by pretending to be a police officer.
A status that can be revised at any time
The person concerned, then aged 33, was indicted in early September in Paris for various offenses, and placed in pre-trial detention. Among the personalities who would have been victims, Magali Berdah. In her complaint sent in August, she notably targeted Booba, accusing him of having rebroadcast on Twitter the elements already disclosed by Léandro JP.
“Justice considered that the complaint was unfounded,” welcomed the counsel of the rapper from Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), Me Samuel Habib, in a statement to AFP. Me Rachel Flore Pardo and Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez, lawyers for Magali Berdah, “take note” of this decision. This intermediate status of assisted witness, which rules out any possible trial concerning him, can be revised at any time during the judicial investigation if “serious or consistent” indications of the rapper’s participation in the offense should appear.
Booba was not heard despite two summonses
Magali Berdah’s accusations in this case are part of broader denunciations on her part concerning the cyberharassment to which she is subject, and of which she accuses the rapper of being the conductor. On this, an investigation has been open since June 1 at the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate (PNLH) of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, in particular for death threats, harassment by means of electronic communication, public insult on account of the origin and sex.
At least 17 people are to be tried soon by the Paris Criminal Court. “We are now waiting for Elie Yaffa to finally be heard” on these facts by the investigators of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), added Magali Berdah’s lawyers. According to several sources familiar with the matter, Booba has still not been heard in this procedure, despite two summonses.