Akon performs during the World Music Awards last month. Photo / Reuters
NEW YORK - American hip-hop and R&B singer and rapper Akon pleaded not guilty to minor criminal charges today after being accused of tossing a teenage fan off the stage during a concert in upstate New York earlier this year.
The singer, who also goes by Aliaune Thiam
and was partly raised in Senegal, faces misdemeanour charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and harassment.
A woman at the concert in Fishkill, about 130km north of New York City, told local media she suffered a concussion when she was struck by the young fan Akon tossed off the stage.
"It was never Akon's intention to violate the law," his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in a statement. "This unfortunate incident was a spontaneous reaction during a live concert that Akon deeply regrets."
The June concert incident occurred after an audience member threw an object at the singer, who then pulled a 15-year-old boy from the crowd and tossed him into the audience, hitting the woman, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.
Akon's second album, Konvicted, released in 2006, featured a collaboration with Eminem called Smack That that was nominated for a Grammy Award. The album, which has sold more than 1.3 million copies in the United States, also featured Snoop Dogg. Other hits included Don't Matter and I Wanna Love You.
In November he won the soul/R&B category at the American Music Awards.
If convicted, Akon, 34, faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
- REUTERS
