After proclaiming his innocence and offering no apologies, rapper Tupac Shakur was sentenced Tuesday to up to 4 1/2 years in prison for the sexual attack of a onceadoring female fan.

“I am innocent and I am not apologizing,” Shakur said moments before Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Fitzgerald sent him away to begin serving a 1 1/2- to 4 1/2-year sentence in state prison for his conviction in November 1994 for sexual abuse.

Shakur could have received the maximum of seven years. He has been in custody since Dec. 23 and will get credit for that time, prosecutors said.

Shakur was found guilty of firstdegree sexual abuse for luring a fan into his Manhattan hotel and groping her along with two of his friends. But the jury acquitted Shakur, 23, of the most serious charge of first-degree sodomy for allegedly forcing the 20-year-old woman to perform oral sex.