Algerian singer Cheb Mami will not be freed: French court rejected his request

The French court rejected the request of release on parole by the Algerian Rai Star Cheb Mami, sentenced on July 2009 to five years in prison on charges of forced abortion against his ex-girlfriend, his lawyer told AFP here on Tuesday.

 Cheb Mami had made a « request for the release on parole » in order to take care of his son, two years old, born during the escape of the singer to Algeria, lawyer Khaled Lasbeur told AFP.

The judge of penalty application in Melun, a town in Paris, where Cheb Mami is jailed, has “rejected” the request for release “because his child does not live in France but in Algeria,” his lawyer added.

According to his lawyer, who announced his attention to appeal, the law “does not indicate whether the child must reside in France or not, but assert that he must live with his father and “this is the case because before his incarceration, Cheb Mami, his wife and son lived together in Algeria”.

The prosecutor at Malun, Bruno Dalles, said the singer “will be eligible for normal release on parole at the end of February 2011 and by then, they could take measures for release permissions.

Cheb Mami has been sentenced on July 3, 2009, especially for dangerous “violence” with aggravated circumstances in 2005 against Camille 43, a press photographer with whom he started a relationship.

The latter claimed that he forced her, on August 2005, in Algiers villa, to abort after she told him that she refused abortion. She added that he was drugged and kidnapped her, while two women and a man tried to make curettage. She had finally given birth to a girl, now aged four.

The Algerian singer, after two years on escape in Algeria, had decided to appear before the French justice. At his trial he had requested Camille’s forgiveness.

“I regret everything that happened. I ask her forgiveness. I am sorry”, he said, inviting his ex-impresario, also involved in the case, did the same.

After he had admitted charges, the singer asserted that he was “trapped” by his entourage.