According to DancehallMag.com, 43-year old Jah Cure, whose real name is Siccature Alcock, has been sentenced to six years in prison – with credit for time served – for attempted manslaughter.
Franklin Wattimena, a press officer of the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said the courthouse found him not guilty of attempted murder. His claim of self-defence was however rejected by the court.
Jah Cure stabbed event promoter Nicardo ‘Papa’ Blake, 45, on October 1st, at Dam Square, in the city center of Amsterdam, where he was booked for a performance. Cure had performed at Blake’s concert, two days before, in the Melkweg. However, he had not been paid his performance fee of 5,000 euros.
Prosecutors had demanded that the Jamaican singer be sentenced to eight years, with time served, for attempted murder and assault. However, Jah Cure‘s lawyer Tim Scheffer argued that the incident was self-defense and that it was never the singer’s intention to stab the concert promoter in the first place. Scheffer had also told the court that the threatening messages that Jah Cure sent prior to the stabbing were “part of the Jamaican reggae culture,” according to Het Parool.
On Tuesday, the panel of three judges rejected Cure’s claim of self-defense but ruled in his favor that it was not a premeditated act of attempted murder. “There is still too little evidence for a preconceived plan to take the victim’s life,” one judge said, according to Telegraaf.
Jah Cure was was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 1999 for raping and robbing a woman at gunpoint. He served 8 years behind bars.