Cheb Mami sentenced to five years in forced abortion case
Cheb Mami, an Algerian singer, has been sentenced by a French court to five years in prison for abducting
his former girlfriend and attempting to force her to have an abortion.
Prosecutors said Mami and his accomplices drugged and abducted his former girlfriend, a French
photographer whose name was withheld, a few days after she told him she was pregnant.
She told the court that she was taken to a villa in Algiers, where three people tried to perform an abortion.
However, upon returning to France, she discovered she was still pregnant and later gave birth to a girl, who
is now three.
"They insulted me.. They threw me on the mattress and tore off my pants....I was given three shots with
needles, one woman pressed against my stomach and the other put her hand in my vagina and started
scraping," she testified in court.
During his testimony, Mami expressed remorse and pleaded for the woman's forgiveness.
He broke down in tears and admitted to making a "serious mistake" but said he did not love the woman and
felt "trapped" when she told him she was pregnant.
"I was ashamed to have an illegitimate child. A child should be born from a union. I didn't want this child,"
he told the court.
Mami blamed his former manager Michel Lecorre - who is known as Michel Levy - saying he was behind the
plot to force the woman to have an abortion.
"I was in a panic and I agreed," he said. "I did nothing to stop him."
Mami's former manager was sentenced to four years for plotting and organising the assault.
Telegraph.co.uk
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