American singer R. Kelly, star of R&B in the 1990s, has just been sentenced to 30 years in prison this Wednesday by the federal court of Brooklyn, nine months after being recognized guilty of years of running a “system” of sexual exploitation young people, including teenage girls. In their last indictment last fall, the prosecutors of the federal court in Brooklyn had demanded at least 25 years of criminal imprisonment because of the “danger” that R. Kelly would represent for his victims and for public opinion.
Facts that occurred between 1994 and 2018
For lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents three of the six plaintiffs, the verdict against R. Kelly should serve as an example for celebrities who use their “notoriety to prey on their fans”. The trial in August and September 2021 also had lifted the veil on the issue of sex crimes within the black community in the United States. For six weeks, the 55-year-old singer, known worldwide for his hit “I believe I can fly”, had been portrayed by the prosecution as “criminal, predatory”.
Nine women and two men accused him of sexually abusing them, describing rape, forced drug taking, situations of imprisonment or even facts of child pornography. R. Kelly was convicted at the end of September of all the charges against him, over a period from 1994 to 2018, including extortion, sexual exploitation of minors, kidnapping, trafficking, corruption and forced labor.