German YouTube Star Finds Himself Facing Trial One Year After Ill-Advised Prank

With more than two million subscribers and upwards of 144 million total views, ApoRed — real name Ahmad Ahad — is one of Germany’s biggest YouTube stars. He’s also one of the nation’s most controversial creators, and a particularly ill-advised stunt from last year could cause him to end up in jail. According to the Hamburg-area newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt, Ahad has been detained and will stand trial for assault charges stemming from a “bomb prank” video he posted last July.

In his bomb prank, which he uploaded to YouTube on the same day as the Nice terror attacks, Ahad carried a duffel bag around downtown Hamburg and dropped it next to unsuspecting passersby, informing them that they have 30 seconds to live. When the local police found out about the prank, they charged Ahad and his friend Jan with assault. The YouTube star ignored his summons, and so a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is current locked up in a Hamburg prison and will remain there until his court date, which is set for October 18.

The bomb prank video has since been deleted, but has been re-uploaded by other users.

Ahad is hated not just for his pranks but also for his music videos, some of which are among the most-disliked YouTube videos of all time. His clip for ‘Everyday Saturday,’ for example, has more than 900,000 total dislikes.

The controversial German is not the only creator who has found himself in legal trouble because of his antics. In May 2016, the British group Trollstation was arrested for staging a heist at the London Museum. Nine days after day, prankster Vitaly Zdorovetskiy was picked up for trespassing at the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. More recently, the parents behind the controversial prank channel DaddyOFive received five years of probation after their pranks against their kids led to child neglect charges.