Algerian singer Cheb Mami has gone on trial in France facing allegations that he abducted a former partner and forced her to undergo an attempted abortion.

Cheb Mami, whose real name is Mohammed Khalifati, denies the charges and told the court he had been "manipulated" by his entourage.

He is credited with bringing Algeria’s popular Rai folk music to an international audience.

He faces 10 years in prison if convicted of complicity in violence.

Prosecutors at the trial in Bobigny, a Parisian suburb, allege that Cheb Mami was one of a group who abducted and beat the woman, a French photographer, in the Algerian capital, Algiers, in 2005.

Still pregnant

They say she came to Algeria believing she was on a business trip, a few days after telling Cheb Mami, 42, that she was pregnant.

She alleges that she was drugged and taken to a villa in Algiers. There, three people tried to perform an abortion.

On her return to France, she discovered she was still pregnant and later gave birth to a daughter, now aged three.

France issued an international arrest warrant for Cheb Mami after he skipped bail in Paris in May 2007 and fled to Algeria.

He returned to Paris on Monday, saying he wanted to attend the trial, and was arrested at Orly airport.

He denies any involvement in the alleged abortion and says he is being persecuted because he is a successful Arab star. He blames his former manager, Maurice Levy, who appeared in court on the same charges.

Two former aides have also been charged but were not in court on Thursday.

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