After being arrested in June as a suspect in a 2015 rape case in Austria, rapper Freddie Gibbs has been formally charged with sexual assault.
Gibbs had been arrested in France earlier in the year, stemming from accusations that he had committed a rape in Vienna, Austria, in 2015. He was granted bail, but Austrian officials later extradited him.
Now, Reuters reports that Austrian authorities have charged the rapper of "sexual abuse of a defenseless or psychologically impaired person." A court spokesperson added that Gibbs "is alleged to have administered knock-out drops to a woman and then have abused her sexually while she was in a defenseless state."
Gibbs's lawyer, Theodore Simon, has released a statement for his client denying the charges, saying the rapper was wrongfully accused. Calling his client "100 percent innocent," he adds that Gibbs is looking to "pursue every available means to demonstrate that he is absolutely innocent and that he has been both belatedly and wrongly accused."
It reads:
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.
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.
Consistent with the available legal practices and procedures in Austria, Mr. Gibbs will ask the Court to release him on bail, under reasonable terms and conditions, as was done in France.
Through counsel Mr. Freddie Gibbs has consistently remained fully cooperative with law enforcement offices and judicial systems in both France and Austria and will continue to do so.
The hip-hop figure had first claimed innocence when the case was made public in June, with another lawyer named Michael Malka saying at the time that Gibbs "categorically denies the allegations made against him by Austria and is even very surprised that Austria is taking this on a year later, just as he is on tour in Europe."
When a request to extradite Gibbs to Austria was made, Malka said that Gibbs "has no intention of escaping justice, whether French or Austrian."
Gibbs had been arrested in France earlier in the year, stemming from accusations that he had committed a rape in Vienna, Austria, in 2015. He was granted bail, but Austrian officials later extradited him.
Now, Reuters reports that Austrian authorities have charged the rapper of "sexual abuse of a defenseless or psychologically impaired person." A court spokesperson added that Gibbs "is alleged to have administered knock-out drops to a woman and then have abused her sexually while she was in a defenseless state."
Gibbs's lawyer, Theodore Simon, has released a statement for his client denying the charges, saying the rapper was wrongfully accused. Calling his client "100 percent innocent," he adds that Gibbs is looking to "pursue every available means to demonstrate that he is absolutely innocent and that he has been both belatedly and wrongly accused."
It reads:
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.
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.
Consistent with the available legal practices and procedures in Austria, Mr. Gibbs will ask the Court to release him on bail, under reasonable terms and conditions, as was done in France.
Through counsel Mr. Freddie Gibbs has consistently remained fully cooperative with law enforcement offices and judicial systems in both France and Austria and will continue to do so.
The hip-hop figure had first claimed innocence when the case was made public in June, with another lawyer named Michael Malka saying at the time that Gibbs "categorically denies the allegations made against him by Austria and is even very surprised that Austria is taking this on a year later, just as he is on tour in Europe."
When a request to extradite Gibbs to Austria was made, Malka said that Gibbs "has no intention of escaping justice, whether French or Austrian."