Pa Salieu alleges that due to a background check failure, he has been removed from the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony scheduled for the following week.
Pa The rapper said on Twitter that he had been „banned from the program because „I failed a background check'” after posting a video of himself practicing for the event.
During a confrontation in 2018 that resulted in his friend being fatally stabbed, Salieu was exonerated of engaging in violent disorder, according to other sources.
However, he was found guilty of using a bottle as a weapon and had earlier acknowledged to committing a second count of violent disorder for attacking a man immediately after the altercation. His last sentence was scheduled for May.
“Yesterday I received a call to say that I’m being removed from the show because I ‘failed a background check’. I can’t keep being silent about this stuff. I’ve already had to cancel 90% of my shows this year because the Home Office won’t process the paperwork I need to travel abroad until my court case is finished. I have fully co-operated with the process. Attended court on time every single day. The trial ended in March, but they keep just moving the final sentencing date which was due to be in May. Most recently the date moved because the ‘prosecutor has gone on holiday’. I’ve consistently been trying to use my career to show people where I’m from that there is another life for us. One away from the roads. But what can you do if the police, the justice system and the home office don’t care about you and put everything possible in your way to stop you trying to get on with your life? Next weeks performance should have been a celebration. What is the real reason here?? How can you fail a ‘background check’ to perform at a closing ceremony. What does that even mean?” – Pa Salieu Wrote.
Despite stating that everyone engaged went through the same accreditation process, a representative for the Games informed sources that the organization would not comment on specific cases.