"There is nothing that I can do here today that can come close to the damage you've already done to your own life.”
Those were the remarks of judge James Linn, as he sentenced actor Jussie Smollett to 150 days in prison at a hearing in Chicago on Thursday.
“You've turned your life upside down by your conduct and shenanigans," Linn continued.
"You're just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that's shameful."
So how, exactly, did a promising and talented actor go from a starring role in the television show Empire to serving jail time?
It’s a long and complicated story.
The rise of Jussie Smollett
Smollett’s acting career started young. As a child, he appeared in films such as The Mighty Ducks and Rob Reiner's North. But it was a starring role in Fox musical drama Empire, alongside Terrence Howard and Taraji P Henson, that truly elevated Smollett’s status.
Playing Jamal Lyon, the son of music mogul Lucious Lyon, Smollett was widely praised for his portrayal of a gay black man and the issues his character faced.
Off the back of his performance in Empire, Smollett signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 2015, and confirmed plans to release an album at some point in the future. Some of the songs performed on the show, including I Wanna Love You and You're So Beautiful, both co-written by Smollett, were released in 2015 as part of Empire’s original soundtrack from season one.
Away from Empire, Smollett directed B-Boy Blues, a film based on the 1994 novel by James Earl Hardy. The movie was released in November 2021.
The events of 2019
On January 22, 2019, about a week before he was attacked, Smollett, 39, reported to the police that he received an envelope addressed to him, with the word "MAGA" (aka, Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan) written in red ink on the return address.
Inside was a threat in cut out letters: "You will die black ****". There was white powder in the envelope, which was found later to be Tylenol.
A week after receiving the letter, on January 29, Smollett reported to the police that he was attacked at 2am while at the fast-food store Subway in Chicago, near his apartment. He says the two men yelled homophobic and racist slurs at him, shouting "This is MAGA country", while also wrapping a noose around his neck.
Many people tweeted in support of Smollett after the incident, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate at the time, and politician Cory Booker.
On January 30, Chicago police released a grainy image of two suspects, as Smollett released his first statement to the media.
"My body is strong but my soul is stronger. More importantly, I want to say thank you. The outpouring of love and support from my village has meant more than I will ever be able to truly put into words ... These types of cowardly attacks are happening to my sisters, brothers and non-gender conforming siblings daily,” he said. “I am not and should not be looked upon as an isolated incident ... Soon I will address all details of this horrific incident, but I need a moment to process."
Smollett spent the next week appearing on talk shows and also addressed the incident ahead of a concert in West Hollywood.
“The most important thing I have to say is thank you so much and that I'm OK. I'm not fully healed yet, but I'm going to. And I'm gonna stand strong with y'all … l will always stand for love. I will never stand for anything other than that. Regardless of what anyone else says, I will only stand for love. And I hope that you all will stand with me. So now … let's do it,” he said. "There has been a lot of stuff said about me that's absolutely not true ... I'm sure my lawyer's sitting up there like 'No, Jussie, no! No! Shut ... up and sing.'
"Above all, I fought the **** back."
On February 12, Chicago police said that Smollett turned over some of the phone records they requested, but not all of them.
The following day, police arrested two suspects — Nigerian brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo — who were picked up at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The police didn't initially release their names, but did confirm that one of the brothers had worked on Empire.
The brothers were later released without charge, and information was leaked to the media that law enforcement was now investigating whether Smollett paid the brothers to carry out the attack.
Smollett’s yet-to-be-filmed scenes were cut from Empire, and sources told CBS Chicago that the Osundairo brothers told police that Smollett sent himself the racist letter, and staged the attack when the letter didn't create the reaction he had expected.
On February 20, Smollett was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report about the attack.
Following the actor’s arrest, Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson said: “This publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn't earn and certainly didn't deserve.
"Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. This stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with this salary. He concocted a story about being attacked. We gave him the benefit of the doubt."
Smollett was suspended from Empire and entered a not guilty plea, but in March 2019, prosecutors dropped all charges against Smollett after he agreed to do volunteer service and let the city keep his $10,000 bail. Authorities gave no detailed explanation as to why they abandoned the case.
But then, in 2020 …
In February 2020, after a special prosecutor looked into the case, a new six-count indictment was filed.
The actor was charged under Illinois’s disorderly conduct statute, which encompasses a wide range of offences, from making prank 911 calls to placing harassing calls as a debt collector.
He faced six counts of disorderly conduct under a subsection of the law that prohibits false reports to police. Some states don’t categorise false police reports as disorderly conduct.
The charges were listed as class 4 felonies, which are among the least serious felonies in Illinois. But convictions can still carry potential prison time of up to three years.
The case took 18 months to come to trial because of delays caused by the pandemic, but when it was eventually heard in December 2021, Smollett was found guilty of five of the six counts.
Sentencing
Despite many people claiming that jail time would be unlikely for the star, on Thursday, he was sentenced to 30 months’ probation, with the first 150 days to be spent behind bars, and ordered to pay $120,000 restitution for lying to police.
Following the sentence being announced, Smollett left the courtroom with his fist in the air, and exclaimed: "I am innocent, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that.
"If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBT community," he said. "But I did not do this."
Al Jazira's foreign quartet for 2017/18
Romarinho, Brazil
Lassana Diarra, France
Sardor Rashidov, Uzbekistan
Mbark Boussoufa, Morocco
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Day 2, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Pakistan’s effort in the field had hints of shambles about it. The wheels were officially off when Wahab Riaz lost his run up and aborted the delivery four times in a row. He re-measured his run, jogged in for two practice goes. Then, when he was finally ready to go, he bailed out again. It was a total cringefest.
Stat of the day – 139.5 Yasir Shah has bowled 139.5 overs in three innings so far in this Test series. Judged by his returns, the workload has not withered him. He has 14 wickets so far, and became history’s first spinner to take five-wickets in an innings in five consecutive Tests. Not bad for someone whose fitness was in question before the series.
The verdict Stranger things have happened, but it is going to take something extraordinary for Pakistan to keep their undefeated record in Test series in the UAE in tact from this position. At least Shan Masood and Sami Aslam have made a positive start to the salvage effort.
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 268hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
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The Gandhi Murder
- 71 - Years since the death of MK Gandhi, also christened India's Father of the Nation
- 34 - Nationalities featured in the film The Gandhi Murder
- 7 - million dollars, the film's budget
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
