The rapper PLK, Mathias Pruski of his real name, was sentenced to one year in prison on Thursday in Montpellier for punching a municipal police officer after a concert in La Grande-Motte, in Hérault, this summer . “We did not believe your explanations at all, that you had not seen that it was a policeman. It is about twelve months firm in theory, arranged in house arrest. It’s up to you to respect [le jugement] to avoid prison, ”explained the magistrate of the Montpellier Criminal Court to the 25-year-old rapper.
If the singer appeals within ten days, he can continue to give concerts, until a final judgment is reached. Neither the artist nor his lawyer made a comment when leaving the hearing. The court was ultimately more severe than the prosecutor, who had only requested six months in prison, again in the form of house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
Dislocated jaw for the policeman
Originally from the Paris region and author of two successful albums (Polak in 2018 and Enna in 2020), whose videos have accumulated millions of views, PLK had been placed in police custody on July 19 at dawn, for his participation in a fight in the parking lot of a nightclub in La Grande-Motte. He was found guilty of “intentional violence against a depositary of public authority not having resulted in an ITT exceeding eight days” for having punched a municipal policeman in the face who had tried to intervene. According to the images from the surveillance cameras and the medical report, the policeman, 98 kg for 1.80 m, had been thrown to the ground, his jaw dislocated.
In court, PLK, short-haired, dressed in a long-sleeved black polo shirt and beige pants, explained that he was initially worried that evening, when he was in the nightclub, ” because a girl was being hit” in the parking lot. Then he would have “run” in the direction of “individuals who continued to annoy everyone”, in a chaotic context. But “I don’t have the memory of the punch”, he insisted, saying to himself “very disappointed with [lui]-same “.
He explains that he did not realize that it was a policeman
Above all, he repeated that due to the darkness, he had not realized that it was a policeman, even if he was in uniform. “You kind of went from artistic production to action,” quipped the victim’s lawyer, Me Philippe Bez, recalling that in one of his clips we can see him “slapping the police”. “We confuse the artist and the individual. He has a real respect for the police,” replied PLK’s lawyer, Me Mourad Battikh.