Lawyer Claims Jussie Smollett Was Victim of ‘Vindictive Persecution’ (Exclusive)

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The attorney for actor Jussie Smollett has spoken out after his 2021 convictions for allegedly staging a hate crime were overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court this week.

Smollett was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct, each count representing one count of reporting a false allegation, for allegedly planning an elaborate fake hate crime against himself in 2019 in which two men allegedly attacked him with bleach, called him racist and homophobic slurs. and put a noose around his neck.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday, Nov. 21, that the charges filed against Smollett by a special prosecutor after the Cook County State’s Attorney dropped the charges represented a violation of his rights.

In response, Smollett’s attorney Nenye Uche said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE that he is “pleased” with the ruling.

“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive pursuit and such a procedure has no place in our criminal justice system,” Uche said. The statement added that “the rule of law was the big winner.”

Dan K. Webb, the special prosecutor appointed to Smollett’s case in 2019, said in a statement that he “respectfully disagrees” with Thursday’s ruling.

“Make no mistake — today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence,” Webb said in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

The Illinois Supreme Court found no “flaws with the overwhelming evidence” presented at trial that led to his guilty verdict, Webb said.

“In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court,” the special prosecutor added.

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The Empire the actor has maintained his innocence and addressed the incident in an interview with PEOPLE in September.

“I was numb,” Smollett told PEOPLE. “I didn’t know how to connect the dots. I really didn’t know. I couldn’t understand what was going on and I couldn’t understand what people were actually thinking… what exactly do they think happened? I couldn’t put two and two together.”