American hip-hop star Wiz Khalifa has been handed a nine-month prison sentence by a court in Romania over a drug-related offence connected to a stage performance in the country last year. The conviction was delivered in absentia after prosecutors overturned an earlier judgment that had imposed only a monetary penalty.
Khalifa was arrested in July 2024 after allegedly smoking cannabis during a live performance at a music festival in Costinești, a resort town along Romania’s Black Sea coast. He was briefly held by authorities before being released, and later issued a public apology, saying his actions were not intended as a sign of disrespect to Romanian laws or culture.
Initially, the Constanța Tribunal fined the rapper 3,000 lei, roughly $690, but Dissatisfied with the outcome, prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, DIICOT, filed an appeal, arguing that the offence warranted a custodial sentence. The appellate court agreed, replacing the fine with a nine-month jail term for illegal possession of a high-risk drug for personal use, of which the decision is final under Romanian law.
Romania has enforced stringent anti-drug legislation, with cannabis prohibited for both recreational and medical purposes.
