Prosecutor-R. Kelly's-marriage-Aliyah

Citing R. Kelly's illicit marriage to teen singer Aaliyah as a proof, Illinois federal prosecutors said that he should be kept behind bars pending trial, according to court papers.

While the filings don't mention Aaliyah's name, they reference the couple's secret 1994 marriage when she was just 15 years old as evidence of the R&B legend's 'intentional and prolific' abuse of minor girls -- and said they have the official paperwork to prove it, reported Page Six.

"[Kelly] even married a 15-year-old girl when he was 27 years old," the prosecutors wrote to a judge in the Northern District of Illinois. "The government produced in discovery to the defendant the official marriage application, marriage certificate, and annulment records for this marriage. Far from being a one-time mistake, the defendant's sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific."

The filing comes after repeated requests from Kelly's lawyers that he be released on bail pending trial in his Chicago child porn case.

Kelly has consistently refused to discuss the unholy matrimony. Also, Aaliyah refused to comment on the marriage prior to her death at age 22 in a 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas.

Prosecutors strongly urged the Chicago judge to keep Kelly locked up, based on his alleged decades of abuse.

"The extent of defendant's sexual abuse of minor girls is staggering: the Indictment in this district alone alleges five minor victims, and as proffered at the detention hearing, the defendant sexually abused those girls hundreds of times before they turned 18 years old," the filing read.

Kelly is also facing racketeering charges in Brooklyn. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

( With inputs from ANI )