Ali B found guilty of rape and sexual assault and sentenced to two years in prison

Rapper and television presenter Ali B was found guilty by judges in Haarlem on one count of rape and one count of sexual assault, but acquitted on the other charges.

The former celebrity was sentenced to two years in prison for rape and assault, although he still has the right to appeal the verdict. Prosecutors had asked for a three-year sentence.

B, whose full name is Ali Bouali, was not present at the verdict. The 42-year-old from Almere was the only one of four men at the centre of a “Me Too” scandal on a TV talent show. The Voice of Holland to end up in court.

A report on the YouTube channel Boos claimed in early 2022 that several dozen women had been harassed and abused by men behind the scenes the programAfter the broadcast, the public prosecutor’s office called on the victims to come forward and initiated an official investigation.

Bouali was later charged with assaulting three women between 2014 and 2018. A woman named Naomi claimed Bouali assaulted and raped her during a writers’ camp in Heiloo in August 2018, when she was 20 years old. He was found guilty of rape, but not of assault.

In the second case, Bouali was charged with sexual abuse of Jill Helena, a participant in The Voice of Holland in 2013. Although her testimony was extremely detailed and credible, the court was forced to find Bouali not guilty due to a lack of evidence.

The third case is the alleged rape of 47-year-old singer Ellen ten Damme during the filming of a television show in Morocco in April 2014. She made her allegations public after the story first broke. Bouali was found not guilty of raping Ten Damme, but was found guilty of sexual assault.

The court stated that Bouali had not taken responsibility for his conduct in court. Rather, he had tried to “exploit the public interest in the case,” the court said. The rapper is “quite energetic” and someone who “does not accept no for an answer.”

Bouali denied all allegations and his legal team has already announced that he will appeal.

Previously, the public prosecutor’s office had decided not to open an investigation against band leader Jeroen Rietbergen and judge Marco Borsato, who were also involved in the scandal.