Moroccan artist Taha Fahsi, known as El Grande Toto, was sentenced on Wednesday (January 18) by the Casablanca court to eight months in suspended prison. Various pressures were put against him: insults, defamation, threats, but also violation of public order, drug consumption and incitement to drug consumption.
The person in question is currently in Senegal “as part of his musical activities”, the sentence was handed down in your absence. In addition to the suspended prison sentence, Taha Fahsi will also have to pay a fine of 10 thousand dirhams (around 900 euros) as well as civil compensation of 50 thousand dirhams. A decision that leaves the defense perplexed.
“I am partially satisfied with this verdict, because I do not understand why the sentence was concomitant with a fine of 50,000 dirhams for the civil part. My client did not commit any criminal act against the complainant”, confided his lawyer, Abdelfattah Zahrach, without excluding “the possibility of appeal”.
“I smoke hashish, so what? »
Last September, during a conference organized on the sidelines of the Les Grands Concerts festival in Rabat, ElGrande Toto publicly revealed that he used marijuana: “I smoke hashish, so what? This output created outrage, reaching the point of rendering reproaches from the government spokesman, Mustapha Baïtas, among other public figures.
Journalist Mohammed Tijjini, in turn, made this the theme of several of his programs, broadcast on YouTube in Belgium. Taha Fahsi's response via an Instagram story: “We will meet in Belgium and you won't know what will happen to you. Which the journalist interpreted as a threat, leading to a series of accusations against the rapper.
Given the magnitude of the case, ElGrande Toto made his mea culpa during a press conference urgently organized by his teams last October. “I apologize to everyone for my offended words, starting with the authorities, the public present and everyone,” he said. he declared.
