R. Kelly: The conclusion of the closing argument | STERN.de

R. Kelly The conclusion of the closing argument

The prosecution in the trial against R. Kelly does not only see the responsibility for his alleged long-term offenses with the musician himself.

R. Kelly (54) is said to have used "lies, manipulation, threats and physical abuse" to make his victims compliant over the years. Prosecutor Elizabeth Geddes drew this conclusion in her three-hour closing argument on Wednesday before the jury in New York, as reported by the "New York Times", among others.

She doesn't just see the musician as responsible for this: in front of a billboard with a mug shot of the singer and pictures of people from his environment, Geddes explained that Kelly had built up a whole network that protected him and systematically recruited victims. "Without them, the defendant could not have carried out his crime pattern for almost three decades," it says.

Abused, drugged, imprisoned

The prosecution had heard a total of 45 witnesses since the trial began in mid-August, including friends and family of R. Kelly, employees and longtime doctors.

Six of the eleven alleged victims heard in court - both women and men - were minors when Kelly is said to have started the abuse. Several said they were physically abused, drugged and imprisoned. In addition, the sex was regularly filmed. One woman reported being forced by Kelly to have an abortion when she was a teenager.

The abuse of the then 15-year-old singer Aaliyah, who married Kelly illegally, is also part of the process. She died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22. According to Gedees, the reason for the wedding was that Kelly feared criminal prosecution after assuming Aaliyah could be pregnant by him. He is said to have tried to force her to have an abortion.

Kelly had waived his own statement. He denies all allegations and pleads not guilty. If convicted, he faces ten years in prison, and he has been in custody since 2019.

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