Processes: Rapper Gzuz should be in prison for a good eight months

processes
Rapper Gzuz should be in prison for a good eight months

According to the Hamburg district court, the rapper Gzuz should go to prison for eight months and two weeks. At the same time, the criminal court imposed a fine of 180 daily rates of 2,300 euros each in the appeal process on Friday, i.e. a total of 414,000 euros. The jury found the 33-year-old frontman of the band 187 Strassenbande guilty of assault, a violation of the explosives law and two violations of the weapons law.

The chamber punished the slap in the face of a young woman who had asked the rapper for a selfie on the Reeperbahn on March 8, 2020 in the morning. For that alone he was sentenced to eight months in prison.

In September 2020, the district court in Hamburg sentenced Gzuz to 18 months in prison for violations of the weapons law, drug possession, attempted theft and bodily harm. In addition, he should pay a fine of 300 daily rates of 1700 euros each – i.e. a total of 510,000 euros. On the other hand, the musician, whose real name is Kristoffer Jonas Klauß, had appealed.

Defenders assume a “self-defense situation”.

His defenders had described the slap in the face of the 19-year-old as a misjudged self-defense situation. Gzuz had to believe he was being filmed against his will. The young woman forced him and used low-threshold violence. It was considered an illegal attack by the woman, confirmed lawyer Ulf Dreckmann before the verdict was pronounced.

Dreckmann and his colleague Christopher Posch demanded a change of perspective from the public prosecutor and the court. You should put yourself in the shoes of the celebrity rapper. Like Gzuz, 99 out of 100 percent of citizens would have tried to push their cell phones away.

The presiding judge Nicole Dietrich also suggested a change of perspective to the accused in the verdict: “If someone hits your daughter in the face and she bleeds, what would you expect from the judiciary?” It wasn’t self-defence. The rapper is 1.95 meters tall, the young woman is small and petite. She may have been annoying, but not aggressive.

The court dropped the charge of drug possession. It could not be clarified beyond doubt who owned the marijuana found in the rapper’s apartment. On the other hand, a “Poland firecracker” found during the search in April 2018 was owned by the accused.

Weapons despite the ban

Despite a ban on weapons for Klauss, the police had seized a pistol, a silencer, 27 cartridges and a telescopic baton when they searched the rapper’s second apartment in Halstenbek near Hamburg. The court found that these weapons also belonged to him. Another charge related to an act on New Year’s Eve 2018/19. Gzuz shot into the air with a gas pistol on the street and had himself filmed. The video was published on the Internet.

A suspended sentence was out of the question because Klauss had been repeatedly delinquent for more than ten years. He was under probation and supervision at the time of the crime. A psychiatric expert did not give him a good social prognosis.

Added to this is his game with the gangster image. This includes the attitude “I’ll do what I want”. What he does as an artist Gzuz is irrelevant to the court. However, with regard to things like the gas gun shots filmed, the judge explained that acts of this kind were economically advantageous for him. “They do it because it’s good for business.” For this reason, the high fine is justified.

Klauss had apologized for his actions in the process that had been running since mid-January. During the sentencing hearing, he contradicted the judge loudly several times. His lawyers can appeal the verdict.

dpa