R. Kelly is reportedly being held in solitary confinement with spiders crawling on him after filing an emergency motion over threats from white supremacists.
R. Kelly is locked in solitary confinement with spiders crawling across his body as he sleeps, according to his legal team, who claim he’s being punished for filing an emergency motion to escape death threats from white supremacists inside the prison walls.
The disgraced R&B singer, currently serving a 30-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, for sex trafficking and racketeering, has been placed in isolation at a federal facility after his attorneys submitted a plea for temporary release.
Earlier this week, R. Kelly’s lawyer filed the motion describing what they called a credible murder plot involving both members of the Aryan Brotherhood and prison staff.
R. Kelly insists the threats are not speculative, claiming there is “evidence that R. Kelly’s life is threatened by prison officials and other inmates” and that he is “the target of a murder plot orchestrated by people who work in the prison system.”
The filing also claims that a prison official warned R. Kelly that “things would get worse” if he continued to fight for his rights in court.
His lawyers allege that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons responded to the emergency court filing by moving R. Kelly into solitary confinement as retaliation.
“Mr. Kelly is now living in solitary confinement. He cannot call his family. He cannot eat his own food from his locker, which he purchased from commissary. The prison officials refuse to give it to him. Mr. Kelly has spiders crawling over him as he tries to sleep. He is alone in the dark in miserable conditions,” R. Kelly’s lawyer, Beau B. Brindley, said.
They also claim R. Kelly is too afraid to eat meals from the prison kitchen due to threats of poisoning.
“Mr. Kelly is afraid to eat that food. And with good reason. The prison officials refuse to let him have his own purchased and sealed food products from his locker (things like peanut butter and crackers) and, instead, insist he must eat food from the chow hall,” Brindley added.
“That left Mr. Kelly with no way to eat without the justifiable fear that his food is being poisoned. So he has been without food for two days,’ Brindley said.
The conditions have left R. Kelly physically and mentally deteriorating. He asked for a temporary furlough to home detention.
His attorneys say R. Kelly is being treated like a violent offender despite being a victim of threats, not a perpetrator of violence.
“He is being punished for asking for legal help, not for his own safety,” the filing reads. R. Kelly’s legal team is urging the court to act swiftly, warning that the current conditions pose a threat to his health and safety.
The motion remains pending as of Friday (June 13).
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