American R&B singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R. Kelly, has asked a United States federal court to grant him house arrest over an alleged plan by some prison officials and inmates to have him killed.

The 57-year-old made the request on Tuesday after his legal team filed an emergency motion, claiming that the singer’s life is no longer safe in federal custody.

According to his lawyer, Beau Brindley, the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer is at risk of being murdered while serving his 31-year sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona.

The motion included a sworn statement by another inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine, who claimed that three prison officials and high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang had ordered him to kill R. Kelly.

“We are seeking the immediate release of R. Kelly, based on the solicitation of his murder by high-ranking BOP officers and officials,” Brindley told journalists during a press briefing.

Stine, who said he has terminal cancer, claimed he was promised freedom if he carried out the murder. He added that a prison official placed him in the same unit with Kelly and reportedly told him, “You need to do what you came here for.”

He later told Kelly about the plot and is now offering to take a lie detector test and name the inmates he has assaulted in the past to prove his claims.

Brindley said it would be dangerous to keep the singer in prison under such threats, describing his continued incarceration as “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“He is not safe in federal custody,” he said. “And to keep him in prison while he is under threat like this is cruel and unusual punishment.”

He also said the defence team will reach out to former US President Donald Trump to intervene in the case.

R. Kelly was first arrested by federal agents in 2019 after several women accused him of sexual abuse and misconduct.

He was later found guilty in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In a separate 2022 trial in Chicago, he was convicted again on multiple child pornography charges.

He was sentenced to another 20 years, with 19 years to run concurrently with his first sentence.

Before his conviction, Kelly was a well-known global music figure, with hit songs like “Step in the Name of Love”, “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time”, and “Ignition”.

His lawyers are now asking the court to release him under strict house arrest, insisting that keeping him in prison under life-threatening conditions violates his rights.

As of press time, there has been no official response from the United States Bureau of Prisons.