We take the same and we start again: an investigation has been opened in Paris after a complaint filed by the rapper Gims and his partner targeting another figure in the milieu, Booba, for “moral harassment” and “cyberharassment”, the public prosecutor’s office indicated on Thursday, contacted by AFP.
The Brigade for the Suppression of Crimes against Persons (BRDP) has been instructed to carry out the investigations, the public prosecutor said.
According to information obtained by AFP, Gims and his partner, nicknamed Demdem, accuse Booba in this complaint of “attacking” them “for six years”, “encouraged” by “an absolutely impressive number of his admirers”, creating “a terrible situation of cyberbullying”.
Attacks on Gims’ physique…
Asked by AFP about this complaint, their lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, indicated that “it is high time that this toxic harassment stops. Harassment is not saying what you think, it is committing a criminal offence and one day answering for it before the courts”.
According to the plaintiffs, who cite numerous messages attributed to Booba on social networks, there were attacks on Gims’ “physical appearance”, with Booba sharing photos of the person concerned without his glasses, which he wears constantly.
In another message, Booba allegedly wrote “You look like a dirty wizard cat kibble.” The plaintiffs also mention numerous attacks against Demdem.
…and against the morality of Demdem
One of Booba’s latest tracks, Sweet Camarais targeted by the complaint as the “high point” of the harassment that the couple allegedly suffered. In this song sung with SDM, Booba says in particular: “We like them fresh, well michtos (editor’s note: in slang, a woman who would be attracted to money), who know how to welcome like Demdem.”
In a interview with Le Parisien published Sunday September 15, 2024, Booba salutes the success of this “pure rap piece (…) with a settling of scores where I attack Gims’ wife, who insulted my daughter”.
In other messages, the “Duke” of Boulogne allegedly called Demdem a “layer”, likened her to “a whore” or presented her “in her underwear in a particularly sexualised context and setting”.
Finally, the plaintiffs denounce an alleged private message that Booba sent to Demdem with the following message: “Send my regards to your son of a bitch husband.”
A “media nightmare”
For the plaintiffs, “the acts of harassment and cyberbullying perpetrated by Mr. Elie Yaffa, alias Booba, are likely to be reproduced on a large scale by the millions of people who currently follow him on social networks.”
According to them, this cyberbullying, a “media nightmare”, would also have “resulted in a significant loss of income from their image” as well as “the deterioration of the daily lives of their children”.
Our “Booba” file
On October 2, 2023, Booba was indicted in Paris for aggravated online moral harassment against Magali Berdah, founder of Shauna Events specializing in influencers.
The source close to the case indicated that Gims and Demdem also recently filed a complaint against Booba for insult and defamation.