A Swedish judge has ordered U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky and two other men released from custody pending a verdict later this month in the entertainer’s assault trial. The judge said Friday the verdict would be announced August 14.
The case has drawn international headlines and U.S. President Donald Trump’s involvement. Shortly after the judge made the decision, Trump said in a tweet that A$AP Rocky was on his way home to the United States. Trump had personally called for the entertainer to be released from custody. Several entertainers also called for the Grammy-nominated artist to be freed.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, and the other two men, were detained in early July in connection with a street fight in Stockholm June 30.
In another development Friday, a witness in the case changed her story, testifying that she did not see the rapper strike anyone with a bottle.
Testifying anonymously by video, the woman and her friend said they had not actually seen the rapper use a bottle as a weapon, but had heard one breaking. The woman alleged that she had seen the fight between him and Mustafa Jafari, the man A$AP Rocky is alleged to have assaulted.
Both women testified that they saw the entertainer and his entourage striking Jafari.
“Everything happened very quickly. We were scared for our lives,” one woman told the court. “He [Jafari] was bleeding. He showed his injuries on his hand. He also said he had a sore back.”
Friday was the third day in the trial of the performance artist. The prosecution has alleged that the rapper, alongside Bladimir Emilio Corniel and David Tyrone Rispers, assaulted Jafari. According to the prosecution, the three men repeatedly kicked and punched Jafari and struck him with a glass bottle.
A$AP Rocky maintains that he acted in self-defense, telling the court that he believed Jafari and a friend of the plaintiff were under the influence of narcotics and that the two men were aggressively following him.
“We pleaded and we begged and we said, ‘Look man, we don’t want to fight y’all. We don’t want any more problems. We don’t want to go to jail. We don’t want to fight y’all. Please stop following us,'” A$AP Rocky told the court in his testimony Thursday.
His bodyguard, Timothy Leon Williams, testified that he was suspicious of Jafari.
Williams said he knew “something’s not right about him. I’m noticing it because I’m a bodyguard,” Williams said in reference to Jafari. “And now, I’m looking at him like, ‘Yo, what’s wrong with you?’ I’m looking at him and saw that his eyes were really glossy, like he’s on something.”
Nevertheless, prosecutor Daniel Suneson recommended a sentence of six months in jail for Rocky and his associates.
“We have three people who throw out punches and kicks against a person who is lying down,” he said. “Their violence is clearly indefensible,” he told the court.
A$AP Rocky’s defense had asked that he be released.
“It is my opinion that there is no basis to believe that the description of the crime applies to my client … he should be acquitted and set free today,” said Slobodan Jovicic.
The performance artist said that he would be open to performing community service, if sentenced.
“You know my address, you know my lawyer’s address,” he said. “I’m into charity work.”