The trial of ex-R&B singer R. Kelly, accused of underage sexual exploitation, continues in the United States.
Former R. Kelly tour manager claimed on Friday August 20 that the fallen R&B star bribed through him an official to obtain false identity documents in order to marry singer Aaliyah, then underage and since deceased in a plane crash.
Read alsoViolence and humiliation: at the trial of R. Kelly, a victim testifies
“I walked in and said, ‘Hey, do you want to make some money?», Said Demetrius Smith, 65 years old today, during his testimony delivered on the third day of the trial of Robert Kelly in New York for sexual abuse. Demetrius Smith, who worked for R. Kelly for more than ten years in the 1980s and 1990s, claimed to have given the civil servant $ 500 in exchange for false papers for Aaliyah, then only 15, for the singer, who was 27, could marry her.
Demetrius Smith, who was testifying with assurance of immunity from future prosecution, told jurors that R. Kelly and his associates conceived the marriage plan after Aaliyah announced she was pregnant, with the singer fearing that she was pregnant. ‘go to “prison».
R. Kelly, tried in Brooklyn Federal Court for extortion, sexual exploitation of a minor, kidnapping, bribery and forced labor, from 1994 to 2018, believed to testify against him in the charges against him.
Read alsoSinger R. Kelly portrayed as a sexual ‘predator’ on day one of trial
It was “to protect himself and protect AaliyahDemetrius Smith said, recounting that he and R. Kelly had gone to Chicago on a whirlwind tour in 1994, later canceled. The manager said he advised the star against marrying Aaliyah, telling her that “he couldn’t marry her and (that) she was too young».
«He asked me which camp I was on.“Aaliyah, whose first album”Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A NumberWas produced by R. Kelly, died in August 2001 in a plane crash, aged 22.
SEE ALSO – Sexual abuse: singer R. Kelly portrayed as a sexual “predator” on the first day of his trial
– .
