Freddie Gibbs has been formally charged with sexual assault in Austria. Over the past several months, the rapper has been staying in Europe fighting allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman last July backstage at a concert.
"He is alleged to have administered knock-out drops to a woman and then have abused her sexually while she was in a defenseless state," a spokesman for Vienna's criminal court said via Reuters.
Gibbs is being charged with "sexual abuse of a defenseless or psychologically impaired person", and if convicted could face up to 10 years in prison according to the court spokesperson.
In June Freddie Gibbs was arrested in France stemming from the alleged sexual assault in Austria in 2015. He was granted bail, but on June 23 Austrian authorities ordered him be extradited to the country. Now he has been formally charged with a crime, though the rapper maintains his innocence.
"While Freddie Gibbs was charged with an offense today, it remains only an allegation, and it does not in any way change the actual facts that Freddie Gibbs is 100% innocent," says one of Gibbs' lawyers Theodore Simon to Pitchfork.
"He continues to pursue every available means to demonstrate that he is absolutely innocent and that he has been both belatedly and wrongly accused. As the investigation and process continues, Mr. Gibbs remains hopeful that a thorough, searching and complete investigation will reveal the actual facts, including the absence of any scientific, physical, or credible evidence implicating him, thereby paving the way for his exoneration and return to his family and one-year old child.
"In accordance with Austrian procedure Mr. Gibbs has not as yet had the opportunity to provide the authorities and the Court with the substantial and compelling exonerating evidence that he has compiled."
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