Reggae star Jah Cure will be forced to spend more time behind bars as the Amsterdam Court of Appeal has sentenced the Love Is singer to eight years and four months in prison on appeal for stabbing a concert promoter in 2021.

A representative of the Netherlands Prosecution Service told Observer Online that the Supreme Court issued the ruling on October 30.

Allegations are that in 2021, the artiste had a business dispute with the victim, a Dutch concert promoter known as Nicardo ‘Papa’ Blake, over payment for a performance in Amsterdam. The suspect allegedly waited for the victim on Dam Square and suddenly, in broad daylight, stabbed him forcefully in the stomach.

READ: Dutch prosecutors set to pursue a 9.5 year sentence against Jah Cure

Following the court’s previous verdict, new information surfaced that the suspect sent voice messages to a friend. In these voice messages, he announced that he would meet the victim at Dam Square and that he had picked up a knife. He also indicated in the messages that he would wait for the victim so he could stab him. The court therefore found that the suspect acted with premeditation.

For several months, in the Netherlands Court of Appeals, Dutch prosecutors pressed their appeal against the acquittal of the Unconditional Love singer’s attempted murder charge in the initial trial. Jah Cure’s lawyer has also appealed the attempted manslaughter conviction.

Jah Cure, whose real name is Siccature Alcock, has been in pre-trial detention in Amsterdam while awaiting the handling of the prosecutors’ appeal of his 2022 conviction. Alcock had been convicted to a six-year sentence in March 2022 for attempted manslaughter, but he was acquitted of the attempted murder charge.

The trial judges had ruled that Jah Cure’s actions were not a premeditated act of attempted murder, and he was acquitted of the more serious charge.