A lot of things happen at the end of the year and it’s easy to miss some of them with the hype of the holidays and top 10 lists floating around but, apparently, Melechesh singer Ashmedi was arrested in Jerusalem a few weeks ago and just released a statement regarding the incident.
Ashmedi commented about the incident:
“While on vacation in Jerusalem, I was arrested for beating up somebody in a bar fight. After three days in jail and a 3000-dollar bail plus 18000-dollar contingent guarantee, I was placed under house arrest for the last seven weeks and will remain under house arrest until the court sets a date for a trial. Then the judge will decide what will happen next.
“I was having a nice night out at a friend’s bar. After several verbal provocations and then verbal death threats to me, I acted in what to me seemed self-defense and finished it. Normally, people know me, I often stop fights and buy people drinks to calm them down — this time shit hit the fan….
“Well, it was a stupid bar fight, which is not my style, really, yet things got out of hand and the vacation turned into a nightmare, three days jail and now I am still under house arrest for the last seven weeks ’till a yet-unknown court date. The fortunate news, however, is that I will be given permission to do the MELECHESH concert in Jerusalem, so I can go out for a few hours to rehearse with my guys and the next day naturally perform with MELECHESH.”
As someone who has met Ashmedi several times, I find it a bit surprising that things escalated to the point of him recurring to violence so it must have been really serious to break his patience like that and on the same note, it must have been a severe beating to land him almost 2 months of house arrest over a bar fight.
Meanwhile, Ashmedi has been granted permission to rehears with the rest of the band for their first appearance in Israel since 1998.
[via blabbermouth.net]
