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Two brothers who cops allege Jussie Smollett paid to carry out a staged hate crime against him are now refusing to cooperate with the case because they're being treated like suspects.

The Chicago Police Department claims Ola and Abel Osundario were paid $3,500 to jump the Empire actor in January 2019 before he claimed he was victim of a homophobic attack.

The acting brothers agreed to help police in the case against Smollett but now their lawyer has said they have changed their minds because the police are treating them as suspects and withholding their belongings as evidence.

'It's been over a year and they need to give us our stuff back,' Abel Osundairo complained to CBS 2 on Wednesday. 'I would understand if we were defendants in the case, which we are not.'