UK court orders singer Chris Brown freed on $6.7 million bail in assault case
UK court orders singer Chris Brown freed on $6.7 million bail in assault case
By BRIAN MELLEY
LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown was released on 5 million-pound ($6.7 million) bail Wednesday while facing allegations he beat and seriously injured a music producer with a bottle in a London nightclub in 2023.
The decision by a London judge to grant bail will allow Brown to launch a world tour next month that had been thrown into doubt last week when a district judge in Manchester ordered him into custody after he was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Judge Tony Baumgartner in Southwark Crown Court said that Brown could go on tour, including several stops in the U.K., but would have to pay the bail to guarantee his court appearance.
Brown, who was not in court for the hearing, was released in the late afternoon from a jail in Salford, outside Manchester, where he had been arrested at a hotel last week.
Brown was initially scheduled to return to court on June 13. Had he remained in custody, he would have missed the first two nights of his upcoming European tour, which starts next month.
Brown, 36, is accused of an unprovoked attack on producer Abe Diaw at a bar in the Tape nightclub in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023 while he was on his last tour.
Prosecutor Hannah Nicholls said last week in Manchester Magistrates’ Court that Brown struck Diaw several times with a bottle and then punched and kicked him in an attack caught on surveillance camera in front of a club full of people.
American musician Omololu Akinlolu, 38, who performs under the name “Hoody Baby” and is a friend of Brown, was also charged in the assault.
Neither Brown nor Akinlolu have entered a plea yet. Both men were ordered to appear in court again on June 20.
Brown, who burst onto the music scene as a teen in 2005, won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for “F.A.M.E.” and then earned his second in the same category for “11:11 (Deluxe)” earlier this year.
His hits include songs such as “Run It,” “Kiss Kiss” and “Without You.”
His tour is due to kick off June 8 in Amsterdam before starting North America shows in July.
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