Jussie Smollett, Who Starred In Empire As Jamal Lyon, Was Arrested For Staging A Hate Crime Hoax.

Jussie Smollett, a well-known actor in the United States, has been sentenced to prison for staging an attack.

Washington – Jussie Smollett, a US actor, was sentenced to nearly five months in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of lying to police about being the victim of a racial and homophobic hate crime in 2019 — an attack prosecutors said he orchestrated.

In December, the gay 39-year-old African-American was found guilty of “organizing” the bogus assault by bribing two Nigerian brothers $3 500 and lying to police in depositions.

“You really crave the attention and you wanted to get the attention,” Chicago Judge James Linn told the former “Empire” star as he read out the sentence.

He said the actor had a streak that was “profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic.”

“This was premeditated to the extreme… You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it,” Limn said, adding that “you did damage to real hate crimes victims.”

‘I’m innocent, I did not do this’

He said Smollett was “just a charlatan, pretending to be a victim of a hate crime.”.

Smollett, who was to be incarcerated on Thursday evening, will have to serve the first 150 days of his sentence in prison as part of a total of 30 months on probation. He must also repay $120 106 to the Chicago Police to cover their investigation costs.

“I’m innocent, I did not do this,” Smollet said as the sentence was delivered.

“I’m not suicidal, if something happens when I’m in there [in jail] I did not do it to myself,” he added, before leaving the courtroom with a raised fist.

Smollett’s lawyers and family had pleaded with the judge for clemency, asking for a lesser sentence or a suspended sentence as an alternative to prison.

The former star of the hit television series “Empire” has retained his innocence throughout his life.

Slurs that are racist and homophobic

He claimed he was attacked in the middle of the night in a Chicago street on January 29, 2019, by two masked guys who he claimed were followers of then-president Donald Trump.

He informed police that they used racist and homophobic comments on him and tied him up with a rope.

After receiving a true piece of hate mail that he thought was not taken seriously by his employers, prosecutors accused Smollett of hiring two pals, brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, to fabricate the attack while using Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The case took an unusual turn in March 2019, when Cook County prosecutors dropped the first 16 criminal allegations against him.

However, a grand jury in Cook County, which handles crimes in Chicago, indicted him again in February 2020 on six charges of disorderly conduct linked to the alleged false reporting.

The case first struck shockwaves through a deeply divided country still plagued by racial and sexual prejudice, and the actor received immediate backing from politicians and cultural figures.