Akon became the recent public figure to face criticism for comments on R. Kelly’s legal woes after he said the disgraced musician “has the right to redeem himself” despite his sex trafficking and racketeering conviction.

The Senegalese-American musician made those comments during a recent interview with TMZ. “There is always a way to redeem yourself, but you have to first accept the fact that you’re wrong,” the 48-year-old said. “He has the right to redeem himself from those mistakes. Even him. He has the right to try to make right by those he hurt.”

The Locked Up singer further buttressed his point by speaking about his religious beliefs and why Kelly was bound to go through his current situation. “I believe that God makes no mistakes,” he said. “People can debate back and forth all day but if it’s happening to him, it’s supposed to happen to him, for whatever reason. Now, that’s something that he has to have within himself to re-evaluate his whole life, his way of being, because to get caught up in a situation like that, whatever happens, [it’s] between him and God.”