CHICAGO (AP) – Jussie Smollett is starting a 150-day prison sentence for committing the hate crime against herself in protective custody, separated from other detainees and watched by security cameras and an officer, prison authorities said Friday.

Sheriff’s deputies immediately took Smollett to the Cook County Jail Thursday night after Judge James Linn sentenced the black and gay actor to 30 months of felony probation – starting with five months in prison – for lying to police that he had been targeted. from racist and homophobic attacks.

Smollett vehemently defended his innocence and suggested he could be killed in prison.

“Your Honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I didn’t do this,” Smollett said Thursday. “And I don’t want to kill myself. And if something happens to me when I go in there, I don’t do it to myself.”

Smollett’s sentence could end – a pending appeal – to more than three years of legal drama following the actor’s report to police that two men wearing ski masks beat him, and threw racial and homophobic slurs at him on a dark, hazy Chicago street.

Smollett’s attorneys filed an emergency order on Friday seeking Smollett’s release pending his appeal. An appeals court judge ruled prosecutors had five days to respond to the emergency motion, WMAQ-TV reported.

His attorney also filed a notice of appeal in the Cook County Criminal Court. They said late Thursday that they planned to appeal the jury’s guilty verdict and the judge’s sentence.

The day before, a judge sentenced Smollett to 150 days in Cook County Jail following his conviction for lying to police about being a victim of a hate crime hoax in 2019. Smollett was also sentenced to 30 months of felony probation, ordered to pay more than $120,000 in damages to city ​​of Chicago and fined $25,000.

He began his sentence soon after learning of his fate on Thursday.

In a statement on Friday, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Smollett is being held in protective custody — typical for people “who are at potential risk of harm because of the nature of their allegations, their profession, or their important status.”

Smollett has his own cell, monitored by security cameras and an officer is stationed at the door and wearing a body camera, the sheriff’s office said. Smollett can have “substantial time” in the common area to use the phone, watch TV and interact with staff, but other prisoners will not be in the same area as him.

Smollett faces up to three years in prison for each of the five felony counts of disorderly conduct – a charge brought for lying to police – for which he was convicted. He was released on the count of six.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised the sentence, saying it sends a message that “false claims and accusations” will not be tolerated.

“The city feels justified in today’s decision that he is held accountable and that we will receive redress for his actions,” he said in a statement.

Smollett’s sentence included a payment of $120,106 in damages to the city and a $25,000 fine.

Smollett was convicted in a December jury trial, in which witnesses including two brothers told the jury Smollett paid them to carry out the attack and gave specific directions on what to do and say.

Smollett, who knew the men from his work on the television show “Empire” which was filmed in Chicago, testified that he did not recognize them and did not know that they were the ones who attacked him.