Issue of the day: Singer R Kelly faces more charges

R&B singer R Kelly has faced accusations of sex abuse for more than two decades. Now he is facing bribery charges that claim he forged documents so he could marry an underage schoolgirl in 1994.

Who is R Kelly?

Robert Sylvester Kelly is a songwriter, producer and performer who rose to fame in the 1990s with huge R&B hits.

The Grammy-award winning artist is known for songs I Believe I Can Fly, Ignition (Remix) and Bump ’N’ Grind and his overtly sexual lyrics.

Kelly is one of music’s biggest stars, selling more than 75 million records worldwide.

What is he being accused of? Since his appearance on the music scene, Kelly has been subject to numerous allegations of the sexual abuse of underage girls.

In 2002 he was indicted on 13 counts of child pornography but cleared of all charges in 2008.

In February 2019, following a damning screening of a documentary, Surviving R Kelly, he was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and was arrested in July for alleged obstruction of justice and sex crimes. He denies any wrongdoing.

What about the bribery charges? Kelly has been charged with bribing a government official to get a fraudulent identification document to marry an under-age girl in 1994.

The girl, named only as Jane Doe in the documents, has widely been identified by US media as singer Aaliyah Dana Haughton.

Kelly wrote and produced her debut album, and they married in 1994 when she was 15 and he was 27.

The leaked certificate listed her age as 18.

Court documents reportedly say the bribe was paid on August 30, 1994 – just one day before the marriage licence to Aaliyah was issued.

The marriage was annulled months later because the teenage bride was underage. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.

And the cult allegations?

A news outlet’s investigation into R Kelly in 2017 claimed he met teenagers offering to mentor them in showbusiness before trapping them in a “sex cult”.

The article alleges he told the teenagers what to eat and how to dress as well as recording their sexual encounters and stopping all contact between them and their families.

The allegations came from three former employees and the parents of several women, who said their daughters had all but vanished.

Some of the six women were later featured in Surviving R Kelly, when their parents shared their stories and tried to get their daughters back.

What did #Muterkelly mean?

In 2018 when circulating rumours reached a head, the hashtag

Mute R Kelly got traction online after a campaign lobbied RCA Records to drop the singer.

Streaming services and ticket sellers were also targeted, with Spotify and Apple agreeing to stop promoting Kelly on featured playlists.

He later released a song called I Admit, confessing to being unfaithful and sharing his own sexual abuse.

He sang: “Only God can mute me... Am I supposed to go to jail or lose my career because of your opinion?”