A Moroccan court has sentenced French rapper Maes to seven years in prison on charges including the forming of a criminal gang and attempted kidnapping, local reports said Wednesday.
Maes, who has roots in Morocco and whose real name is Walid Georgey, was arrested upon landing in Morocco in January after fleeing the United Arab Emirates where he feared he could be extradited to France, the reports said.
French authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for him over a separate criminal case.
He appeared in the Tangier Criminal Court of First Instance late Tuesday and was found guilty of "forming a criminal organisation, attempted abduction and unlawful confinement" of a rival in Morocco, news website TelQuel reported.
According to TelQuel, The allegations claimed the singer had commissioned a gang and a “hitman” to murder a rival in Marrakech. The plot was foiled following an attempted assault in Tangier.
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Walid Gergi was arrested in Casablanca on 22 January 2025 after leaving the United Arab Emirates, fearing extradition to France where an international arrest warrant had been issued for similar offences. He denied all charges brought against him.
According to the Moroccan newssite, Gergi’s lawyers argued there was "a total lack of evidence,’ calling the file “empty”, and claiming nothing linked their client to the arrested individuals, notably a certain “Mourad”, considered the presumed leader and main defendant.
Billion views
The rapper with over a billion views on his YouTube channel was accused of tasking a gang and hitmen with killing the rival, but the plot was foiled, TelQuel added.
Maes has denied all charges, with his lawyers calling the case "empty" and "arguing that no evidence linked him to the other defendants."
Ten other people were sentenced as part of the case, with terms ranging from one to 10 years, according to news website Medias24.
French press agency AFP was unable to independently verify the reports as prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.
Morocco extradites head of notorious Marseille drug gang to France
In 2020, when Maes was one of France's most-streamed rappers, he fell victim to extortion attempts in his native Sevran, a suburb north of Paris, according to reports.
He retaliated by opening fire with weapons he had at home, leading to a shootout. He then fled to Dubai with his family, according to an interview with French YouTube channel Legend.
Following the killing of his manager in 2022, he was suspected of ordering reprisals against those he believed were behind the murder, according to reports.
Maes' downfall is documented in L’Empire: enquête au cœur du rap français, (The Empire: Investigation at the Heart of French Rap,) an extensive investigative account published on 29 October by journalists Joan Tilouine, Paul Deutschmann and Simon Piel.
(With newswires)
