Cheb Mami to be released on parole from French prison next week

Sources from Cheb Mami's family in the city of Saïda in western Algeria told “Echorouk” that Cheb Mami, the “Prince of Raï music”, whose real name is Mohamed Khelifati will be released from a French detention center on parole between the 21st and 22nd of this month after a clemency ruling handed down earlier this week by a Paris tribunal.

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• This salutary breakthrough came about after the recent sending by Cheb Mami from his Moulins prison of a letter to French President Nicholas Sarkozy appealing to him to grant him clemency and to order his release for humanitarian reasons.
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• Cheb Mami explained that his imprisonment had had a nefarious impact on his psychological well-being and especially also on his 84 – year old mother whose health condition, he said, had gone from bad to worse ever since.
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• Cheb Mami’s hearty appeal was finally heeded and the residents of his hometown of Saïda are said to be preparing for a splendiferous feast in the city to celebrate his much-awaited comeback as a free man among his fellow countrymen.