Popular European Singer Cheb Mami on Trial for Forcing Girlfriend to Have Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 2, 2009
Paris, France (LifeNews.com) — Popular European singer Cheb Mami is on trial today in France and charged with forcing his girlfriend to have an abortion. Known as Prince of Rai, Mami, whose real name is Mohammed Khalifati was apprehended by Interpol agents after he fled to his native Algeria for more than two years.
Mami faces 10 years in prison and a $210 000 if found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend, a 43-year-old magazine photographer.
He skipped bail and fled to Algeria in 2007 after being charged with counts of causing bodily harm, sequestration and issuing threats against his former partner.
The forced abortion incident saw Mami’s former manager Maurice Levy, who Mami says organized the attempt to get the girlfriend to have an abortion, also charged in the incident.
Levy and Mami reportedly kidnapped and drugged the unnamed woman and took her to a house in Algiers where two doctors attempted to do an abortion on her.
The woman later returned to France and found out that the abortion was not successful. She later gave birth to a child, who is now three-years-old.
Mami told News 24 that he "regrets" his attitude towards his former girlfriend and blamed Levy for pressuring him into the forced abortion.
"The biggest mistake of my life was to follow the advice of my Jewish manager," the singer said. He has not performed since word of the scandal broke.
But the woman’s lawyer, Marie Dose, said Mami was very involved in the abortion attempt.
"For Cheb Mami to say who did what, who decided what. For him to stop laying the blame on his ex-manager," is wrong, Dose said. "My client wants recognition of the barbaric acts she lived through. That those who assaulted her finally own up to their responsibilities."
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