American actor Jussie Smollett was convicted on Thursday of five charges of the six he faced for faking an alleged attack in Chicago (USA) in January 2019, described as racist and homophobic.
This was decided by a Cook County jury, in the state of Illinois, after more than nine hours of deliberations on these charges, of which the ex-protagonist of the series "Empire" he had previously pleaded not guilty.
Smollett, 39, was found guilty of five of the six disorderly conduct charges under an Illinois state law that prohibits false reports to police, which could carry up to three years in prison and a $ 25,000 fine. .
The actor, who is African American and gay, reported to the police that he was attacked by two men in downtown Chicago, who insulted him, doused him with a supposedly caustic liquid and hung a rope around his neck.
The attackers would have yelled at him "This is a MAGA country", in reference to the campaign slogan of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) "Make America great Again" (Let’s make America great again).
However, in the investigations it would have been discovered that everything was a hoax prepared by the actor, who wanted to impress the producers of the television series and strengthen his career.
This was precisely one of the points that the Prosecutor’s Office insisted on throughout the trial, which ended up convincing the Cook County jury.
The first criminal charges against Smollett for a false report were dismissed in a controversial decision by the Attorney General for that county.
In a second instance, special prosecutor Dan Webb reviewed the handling of the case and got a special jury to approve six charges against the actor in February 2020, for disturbing public order and lying to the police about an alleged hate crime.
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