PARIS (AFP) – French rapper Naps should stand trial on rape charges for allegedly assaulting a woman while she was sleeping in 2021, an investigating judge has ruled.
The rapper from the Mediterranean city of Marseille, whose hit “La Kiffance” has more than 186 million views on YouTube, contests all the charges “as firmly as possible”, his lawyer Nabil Boudi told AFP on Wednesday.
Boudy added that prosecutors have appealed against a Paris trial order filed on May 15.
According to prosecutors, in October 2021, a young woman filed a criminal complaint against Naps, alleging that she and a friend had sat at the same table as the rapper at a bar in the capital at night.
The group moved to a hotel room, and the singer’s friends gradually filtered out.
“The young women were asleep and one of them said she was woken by sexual acts to which she did not consent,” the prosecutor added.
Knapps was indicted later that month and placed under judicial supervision.
Prosecutors had waited until February of this year to request a trial, but now it has been granted.
Knapps’ first album, “Ma ville et ma vie” (“My city and my life”), was released in 2015, but he rose to fame in 2021 with the release of the track “La kiffance” from “Les mains faites pour l’or” (“Hands made for gold”).
He has collaborated with other leading French artists, including global star Maître Jimus.
