A popular French streamer died while on camera earlier this week amidst claims that he was “tortured” for ten days.
Raphaël Graven, known online as Jean Pormanove, was found deceased on Monday morning, August 18, at a home in Contes, a village north of Nice, France.
Harrowing local reports claim that the 46-year-old former soldier was regularly beaten and abused by two other influencers during livestreams. They add that Graven was found dead after “ten days of torture, sleep deprivation and ingestion of toxic products”, with viewers watching him take his “last breath”.
His final livestream, hosted on platform Kick, had been running for more than 298 hours. Chilling footage shared on social media shows the other participants in the live stream noticing Graven had died. The broadcast was then abruptly cut off.
The Nice prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the cause of death, while an autopsy has been ordered. They told La Parisien: “At this stage, there is nothing suspicious, interviews are underway, and an autopsy will be performed.”
Days prior to his passing, however, it’s reported that Graven had messaged his mom and admitted to feeling like he was “being held hostage” for the controversial live stream.
The 46-year-old established his most current streaming account on Kick in May 2023. In the intervening two years he had accumulated over a million followers across his various social media platforms.
His latest – and final – stream saw him take on a streaming marathon that lasted ten days. Such an extreme stunt, according to reports, wasn’t out of the ordinary for Jean Pormanove, who regularly worked with partners in participating in challenges.
It’s said that some of their content included “humiliation streams” which often saw Graven being subjected to violence.
France’s digital technology minister, Clara Chappaz, said the 46-year-old had been “humiliated and abused for months”, with previous streams allegedly showing him slapped, spat on, grabbed by the throat, and having objects thrown at him.
According to reports, his two regular co-creators were Owen Cenazandotti (‘Naruto’) and Safine Hamadi (‘Safine’).
Naruto took to Instagram to pay tribute to Graven as his “brother, sidekick, partner”, pleading with followers to not re-share clips from the stream showing him dead or unconscious.
Both Naruto and Safine were taken into police custody in January of this year on suspicion of disseminating footage showing violence against vulnerable people.
They were soon released, however, with a Nice prosecutor stating: “Both the people likely to be implicated and those who were victims denied the commission of offences.”
Rest in peace, Raphaël Graven.
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