By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 3 hours ago, Updated 3 hours ago
In 2020, rapper Freeze Corleone had already been the subject of an investigation, ultimately dismissed, for “provoking racial hatred”. YouTube screenshot
According to the court, “several titles that Freeze Corleone was to perform during his concert include calls for violence which are likely to incite hatred or discrimination against named persons.”
Administrative justice validated Thursday the ban on a concert in Lille by the controversial rapper Freeze Corleone, targeted by an investigation for “apology of terrorism”, while a decision is expected for the concert planned in Lyon on Saturday. The administrative court of Lille ruled “the risk of disturbances to public order (…) sufficiently established so that the ban pronounced by the prefect of the North does not pose a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of expression”, according to a press release released by the institution. The court notes that “several titles that Freeze Corleone was to perform during his concert include calls for violence which are likely to incite hatred or discrimination against named people”.
Seized in summary proceedings, he recalled that, in the past, the rapper did not respect commitments made before the administrative justice not to sing certain songs. “We make a disparate sampling of comments that can shock the bourgeoisie”, the rapper’s lawyer, Sanjay Mirabeau, protested at the hearing Thursday morning, just a few hours before the concert scheduled for 8 p.m. at the city’s Zénith. After the decision, he announced that he was going to seize the Council of State, despite the short time remaining before the start of the concert
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Read also Apology for terrorism: rapper Freeze Corleone announces defamation action against Estrosi and Ciotti
At the beginning of the afternoon, a second summary hearing, this time in Lyon, contested the ban by the Rhône prefecture of a concert announced on Saturday at the Tony-Garnier hall. The two prefectures consider that the lyrics of several Freeze Corleone songs contain “openly anti-Semitic remarks marked by admiration for the person of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich”.
They also highlight comments making “the apology” of terrorism, through a reference to the Nice attack of July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais, which left 86 dead and hundreds injured. “Burberry like an English grandfather. I arrive in rap like a truck that bombs hard on the…”sings Freeze Corleone in Haaland, a duet with German rapper Luciano, released last week. Words which led to the opening of a preliminary investigation in Nice for advocating terrorism.
“Not an opinion leader”
Sanjay Mirabeau was annoyed at the hearing that we “try to ask yourself what the artist, by saying nothing, wanted to suggest in the mind of the public”. He assured that Haaland would not be sung in Lille. His client, real name Issa Lorenzo Diakhate, followed by hundreds of thousands of people on social networks, is a singer, not a «leader d’opinion», he pleaded. He argued that an artist has the right to interpret whatever character he wants. “We have all attended concerts where an artist gives his audience the choice of finishing his sentence”pointed out on the contrary the chief of staff of the prefect, Christophe Borgus, emphasizing the risk of a “terrorist proselytism”. A group of young people in possession of tickets for this concert attended the audience. They assure that fans of Freeze Corleone “are not people who follow him as a preacher of good political thought”.
Also read: What Freeze Corleone’s Anti-Semitic Rap Reveals
During the hearing in Lyon, another lawyer for the rapper, Adrien Chartron, stressed that his client had not “is the subject of no criminal conviction and (that) all of his concerts had not posed any disturbance to public order”. In 2020, Freeze Corleone had already been the subject of an investigation, ultimately dismissed, for “provocation to racial hatred” after clips containing lyrics such as “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s” or “every day RAF (nothing to worry about) the Shoah”.
In recent months, several prefectures have banned his concerts. Administrative justice allowed two dates to be held at the Zénith in Paris in November, but validated the ban on another concert near Nantes in December. The latter is currently postponed to February 28, pending a decision from the Council of State. This same Council of State ended up authorizing the rapper to perform in Rennes last March, despite another ban.
2024-02-15 18:37:06
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