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The claim, detailed in court filings this week, comes alongside a reported medical emergency that saw Kelly hospitalised with blood clots in his lungs.

According to documents filed by Kelly’s legal team, the 58-year-old singer collapsed at the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina, where he is serving concurrent 20 and 30-year sentences for child sexual abuse and racketeering.

His lawyers allege that the collapse followed a deliberate medication overdose administered by prison authorities.

In a statement filed on Tuesday, his attorney Beau B. Brindley claimed, “These people did overdose him. They did leave him with blood clots in his lungs and remove him from a hospital that sought to do surgery to remove them. And they did it within days of his exposure of a plan to kill him set forth by Bureau of Prisons officials.”

Kelly’s legal team insists the murder plot involved officials seeking help from leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist prison gang.

They argue that the singer should be placed on temporary home detention for his safety, citing what they describe as a credible threat to his life.

Government prosecutors have dismissed the allegations as “repugnant” and lacking in legal standing. They argue that a judge in Chicago has no authority to alter a sentence involving convictions handed down in New York and Illinois.

These people did overdose him. They did leave him with blood clots in his lungs,” said attorney Beau Brindley.

“Kelly has never taken responsibility for his years of sexually abusing children, and he probably never will,” federal prosecutors said in response. “Undeterred, Kelly now asks this Court to release him from incarceration indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.”

The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment, citing policy on ongoing legal matters and conditions of confinement.

Kelly was convicted in Chicago in 2022 of producing child sexual abuse images and enticing minors for sex.

He had earlier been found guilty in 2021 in New York for racketeering and sex trafficking. His appeals, including one to the U.S. Supreme Court, have so far failed.

The singer has also sought clemency from former President Donald Trump.

Despite his global fame, Kelly’s fall from grace has been long and public. Once celebrated for his chart-topping hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and the dramatic series “Trapped in the Closet,” the singer’s reputation crumbled after decades of allegations surfaced.

Public outrage reached new heights following the release of the 2019 documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which reignited calls for justice.

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A court hearing on Kelly’s latest claims is scheduled for Friday at Chicago’s federal courthouse.