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Young Thug‘s lawyer has hit out at the rapper’s “dungeon like” prison conditions in an emergency filing.
Brian Steel said the rapper, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, was being held in “solitary confinement” in a “windowless cement compartment with only a bed and a toilet and an overhead light which remains on 24 hours per day,” according to a motion filed today (May 13) (via Rolling Stone).
He also alleged that his client can’t sleep, rest, or meditate due to the disorienting environment and has “no opportunity to exercise, shower or have human contact.”
“Mr. Williams, an innocent man, who is wholly isolated from the world, must obtain immediate relief,” Steel added.
It comes after Williams was arrested on gang-related charges earlier this week.
He is one of 28 people charged in an indictment that focuses on the alleged street gang YSL (“Young Slime Life”), believed to have formed in Atlanta in 2012. Thug is suspected of being one of three of the alleged gang’s founding members, while rapper Gunna is also among those listed in the indictment, who has since been arrested.
Gunna’s lawyers have since responded saying his indictment is also “intensely problematic” and declared that he was “innocent”.
Thug has since been hit with seven further charges. At the time of his arrest, the rapper was charged on two counts: participating in criminal street gang activity, and conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act.
Steel, claimed at the time that his client had “committed no violation of law whatsoever” and that his team “will fight this case ethically, legally and zealously”.
Two of the further charges that have since been issued are drug-related: possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a Schedule III, IV or V controlled substance with intent to distribute. There are also two weapons charges: possession of a firearm during commission of a felony and possession of sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off rile, machine gun, dangerous weapon or silencer.
Williams has also been charged with three counts of being a person employed or associated with a criminal street gang to conduct or participate in criminal gang activity through the commission of a crime.
Both Young Thug and Gunna are also being accused of “acts in furtherance of the conspiracy”, relating to song lyrics and social media posts the rappers made, with lines from songs including their collaboration ‘Slatty’ or Young Thug and Juice WRLD‘s ‘Bad Boy’ among them.
