A$AP Ferg at Terminal 5
photo by Toby Tenenbaum

A$AP Rocky released from jail while awaiting verdict in assault trial

A$AP Rocky will be let out of jail in Sweden while he waits to hear if he’s been found guilty of assault, USA Today reports. A Swedish judge will deliver a verdict on the case on August 14, and Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) and the other two defendants from his entourage, Bladimir Corniel and David Rispers, don’t need to remain in the country in the interim.

All three men claimed they were acting in self-defense, and pleaded not guilty to the assault charge, which stemmed from a June 30 street brawl. As The Associated Press reports, Rocky testified that he tried to avoid a confrontation with two men he said wouldn’t stop following him; one of them, he said, picked a fight with one of his bodyguards. In the confrontation that followed, prosecutors say Rocky and his entourage “beat and kicked” 19 year old Mustafa Jafari, hitting him with a bottle.

A witness who had previously given a report to the police revised her account, The Associated Press reports, to say that she actually didn’t see Rocky hit Jafari with a bottle. More from The AP:

Whether or not Jafari, who got into an argument with Mayers’ entourage in Stockholm, was hit with parts or a whole bottle has become one of the key issues at the trial.

Both women who testified Friday maintained their previous statements to police that they saw Mayers and his partners beating and kicking Jafari.

But one of the women recanted what she witnessed with the bottle. She said she heard the bottle being crushed, though she couldn’t say whether Mayers’ entourage threw the bottle to the ground or hit Jafari with it.

She said she didn’t see Mayers holding a bottle during the scuffle. Her friend testified that she didn’t see anyone hitting Jafari with a bottle.

“Everything happened very quickly. We were scared for our lives,” the first woman told the court in Swedish. “He (Jafari) was bleeding. He showed his injuries on his hand. He also said he had a sore back.”

Williams’ testimony closely mirrored what Mayers told the court Thursday , adding that the situation was made more complicated due to the language barriers between the rapper’s group and Jafari.

President Donald Trump became involved in the trial from afar, making inflammatory statements about Sweden on Twitter and offering to “personally vouch for” bail for Rocky, even though Sweden doesn’t have a bail system. His comments have been seen by many as attempts by the US government to interfere in a legal case, something the Swedish courts take seriously and are opposed to.

Trump also Tweeted upon Rocky’s release from jail, writing, “A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!”