Singer R Kelly was rushed to hospital after suffering a near-fatal overdose in prison, his lawyer says.

According to a new filing by lawyer Beau Brindley, the 58-year-old – who is serving 30 years in a North Carolina prison for sex trafficking and racketeering – was put in isolation on June 10 with his anxiety medication.

After being given more medication by prison staff, he lost consciousness three days later and was taken to Duke University Hospital on June 13.

Kelly was taken back to his cell after two days under observation.

Brindley claims prison staff intentionally “gave him an amount of medicine that could have killed him”.

“This was no mistake. It was a dose that jeopardised his life and nearly ended it,” he said in the court documents.

Brindley subsequently filed an emergency motion for Kelly’s early release from prison. It is a third attempt to get his client out from behind bars.

Kelly is already seeking clemency from US President Donald Trump as he claims to fear for his life in federal prison.

Brindley filed an emergency motion alleging three officials from the Bureau of Prisons plotted to murder Kelly in jail.

“We believe that President Trump is the only person with the courage to help us,” Brindley told People magazine.

Kelly’s legal team hopes Trump might deliver a pardon or commute the singer’s sentence.

“Immediately after our motion became public, Robert was thrown into solitary confinement,” Brindley said.

“He cannot make phone calls to his family. He has no access to commissary. He has spiders crawling over him while he tries to sleep.”

Kelly is reportedly afraid to eat prison food because he fears it might be poisoned, according to Brindley.

The emergency motion included a declaration from inmate Mikeal Glenn Stine, who alleged he was asked to kill Kelly by three high-ranking BOP officials.

Stine, who claims membership in the Aryan Brotherhood and said he was once a commissioner with the group, stated prison officials arranged his transfer to the Federal Correctional Institution Butner in North Carolina – where Kelly is also held – and put him in Kelly’s unit.

In return for carrying out or arranging the murder, Stine alleged he was promised an escape from custody and the chance to live as a “free man”.

Stine also claimed he has terminal cancer and later told Kelly about the plot, stating he no longer intended to go through with it.

Last month, Trump said he would consider pardoning Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces similar federal charges.

“If I think someone was mistreated, it wouldn’t matter whether they like me or don’t,” Trump said.

Brindley added about Kelly’s situation: “He is not safe in federal custody. And to keep him in prison while he is under threat like this is cruel and unusual punishment.”