PROSECUTORS in the Netherlands are seeking an eight-year prison sentence for Jah Cure for attempted murder when he returns to court on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.

The 43-year-old singer, who appeared in an Amsterdam court on Tuesday, is also charged with attempted manslaughter, aggravated assault or attempted aggravated assault.

He is being represented by Tim Scheffer.

Scheffer, in a two-hour public hearing on January 12, entered a self-defence plea for Jah Cure and said the entertainer was in possession of a knife on the day of the incident on October 1, 2021 because he was wearing expensive jewellery.

That claim was, however, dismissed as “unbelievable” by the prosecutors on Tuesday, as they said the entertainer deliberately sought confrontation. This, the prosecutors said, was evident in the voice messages sent to the victim by the singer, as well as conversations with other people.

“The last time you will live to diss man thing,” was one of the messages left on the victim’s cellphone.

According to the prosecutors, the suspect told the police that the victim pulled a knife out of his right pocket. However, the victim is left-handed and the suspect didn’t know this.

In view of the fact that the incident was not caught on CCTV, eyewitnesses were brought to testify at the trial.

“This is the nigger I have to kill,” a witness recalled Jah Cure saying before making a stabbing motion.

The witness said he did not see a knife, but saw the victim clutch his stomach.

Another witness testified to seeing a stabbing motion by the suspect, but did not see a knife.

According to prosecutors the suspect took a knife to a meeting, not to protect himself because he was wearing an expensive Rolex watch, but to harm the victim — and this indicated “premeditation”.

“These are grave crimes that not only have consequences for the personal integrity of the victim, but [have] also severely shaken the legal order. Because the victim was stabbed in broad daylight, and in the busy city centre of Amsterdam, it evokes feelings of unsafety among the general public,” said the prosecutors.

Jah Cure has been detained since October 1, 2021 for allegedly stabbing show promoter Nicardo Blake at Dam Square in Amsterdam. He has been held at an undisclosed detention centre outside of Amsterdam since the incident.

Blake, whose Roots Vibes company stages reggae shows in the Netherlands, allegedly sustained injuries to the abdomen and was reportedly hospitalised.

Throughout the years, Jah Cure has had several brushes with the law. He was convicted of rape and illegal possession of a firearm in April 1999 and served eight years of a 15-year sentence in prison. He was released in July 2007.

Ironically, his first concert after being released from prison in Jamaica was in the Netherlands at the Reggae Sundance Festival in August 2007.

He has had several incidents with promoters in The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, however those were resolved without court action.

Jah Cure (given name Siccature Alcock) has had consistent success since his release from prison. His hit songs include Love Is, Unconditional Love, and All of Me; while he has collaborated with such artistes as Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, Torey Lanez and Mya.

His 2015 album, The Cure, was nominated for a Best Reggae Album Grammy Award the following year.