Jussie Smollett to return to court over hate crime case| See full details

The actor has been indicted on six fresh new cases for the alleged faking of a hate crime he claimed he suffered in January.

According to the BBC, Smollett is facing six counts of disorderly conduct, special prosecutor, Dan Webb, said in a statement.

In January last year, Smollett reported an alleged attack to the Chicago police who then revealed that they were investigating the case. They later revealed that the actor was punched in the face, has an unknown substance poured on him, and had a rope tied around his neck.

All of this was until the police chief and the city’s mayor came forward to accuse Smollett of lying in order to increase his social standing. Smollett has remained adamant that he was indeed the victim of a homophobic attack.

Webb is a former American attorney who was assigned to further investigate the case after it was dropped in March 2019. He said in his statement:

“Smollett planned and participated in a staged hate crime attack, and thereafter made numerous false statements to Chicago Police Department officers on multiple occasions, reporting a heinous hate crime that he, in fact, knew had not occurred.”

The Osundairo brothers, who were first accused of the crime, also released a statement following the new development. They said:

“The Osundairo brothers are aware of the new charges brought against Jussie Smollett today by the grand jury. As stated before, they are fully committed to the public knowing the truth about what occurred on January 29, 2019.

“The Osundairo brothers will continue to cooperate with that process and they thank the Special Prosecutor’s office for their tireless work in seeing that justice was administered.

He is due to appear in court on 24 February. In a separate charge, the city of Chicago also sued him for more than $130,000 seeking payment for police officers who were paid overtime while investigating Smollett’s complaints.

He has filed a countersuit against the claims.