Two Swedish Rappers Sentenced to Prison for Kidnapping Scheme Involving Rival Artist

Two Swedish rappers have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in criminal activity, which include kidnapping and blackmail.

The BBC reports that 23-year-old rapper Yasin Mahamoud was sentenced to 10 months in prison for conspiring to kidnap a rival artist, and rapper Haval Khalil was sentenced to 2.5 years for aiding and abetting the kidnapping. Both rappers denied the charges.

Mahamoud attempted the kidnapping by trying to persuade the rival artist to come to a recording studio in Stockholm in March 2020. However, when the plot was aborted, Khalil took it upon himself to carry out the scheme by inviting the victim to an apartment in April. He then tied up the rival artist, beat and robbed him, and took compromising photographs, which Khalil used as blackmail. The images were later posted on social media when the victim wouldn’t pay. Mahamoud wasn’t involved in Khalil’s ploy.

But it was also discovered that Mahamoud was connected to a bigger case involving a large criminal network. The network’s leader, 33-year-old Chihab Lamouri, was handed a sentence of 17 years and 10 months, the longest of anyone. Lamouri was also reportedly involved in Mahamoud’s kidnapping scheme. Collectively, the 27 people from the network who have been convicted face 147 years in prison combined for charges including attempted murder, robbery, and extortion.

Mahamoud recently dropped two chart-topping albums in Sweden and won Artist of the Year and Hip-Hop/RnB Artist of the Year at Sweden’s P3 Gold awards. However, he wasn’t able to attend the award show because he was in custody for the kidnapping.