Rapper Bushido reveals split from Berlin crime clan

Anna-Maria Ferchichi, the wife of star rapper Bushido, has told Stern magazine that her husband is free of business partner Arafat Abou-Chaker, the clan boss who "determined our entire life."

"Of course we are scared that someone will shoot me or my husband out of revenge," she said. "[But ] we are not intimidated anymore," she added.

In an article from 2013 on Bushido's links with the organized crime clan, Stern noted that the clan chief received 50 percent of Bushido's income. Despite facing court and several bans for his sexist, racist and homophobic lyrics, Bushido, who is of Tunisian parentage, has produced a slate of number one records in recent years. 

"Arafat decided everything," said the rapper, who admitted to subordinating himself to Abou-Chaker: "Of course, I'm not just a victim, I'm an accomplice, so I'm a contributor, I looked the other way all those years," he said.

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'Not allowed to stand with my husband'

The interference in the private life of the couple had been massive, said Bushido in Stern.

Abou-Chaker even insisted in 2013 that Bushido's deceased mother was to be buried as part of an Islamic funeral in which men and women separately visit the grave. "I had looked after my husband's mother until the very end," Ferchichi told Stern. "And now I was not allowed to stand with my husband at her grave, instead there were some bikies and half of Neukölln."

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Indeed, in 2014 it was reported that the Abou-Chaker clan and the Hells Angels biker gang were collaborating.

Abou-Chaker heads a Palestinian-born mafia clan that is based in several European countries, including Germany. Several hundred members of the clan are said to live in Berlin, while it's alleged that members engage in organized crime such as extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering.