STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Latest on the assault trial in Sweden for American rapper A$AP Rocky (all times local):
8 p.m.
President Donald Trump is cheering a Swedish court’s ruling that American rapper A$AP Rocky and two other American suspects can be freed from detention until Aug. 14, when the verdict on their assault case will be announced.
Trump had sought earlier to personally intervene on the rapper’s behalf, a move rebuffed by Sweden’s leader. On Friday Trump tweeted, “It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!”
Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused with two others of beating a 19-year-old man in Stockholm on June 30.
A Swedish court has ruled that the three suspects can be freed from detention until the verdict is announced Aug. 14.
Trump tweeted “A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden.” But it wasn’t immediately clear from the decision Friday by Stockholm District Court whether the suspects could leave the country.
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7:30 p.m.
A Swedish court has ruled that American rapper A$AP Rocky and two other U.S. suspects can be freed from detention until Aug. 14, when the verdict on their June 30 assault case will be announced.
It wasn’t immediately clear from the decision Friday by Stockholm District Court whether the three suspects in a beating could leave the country.
Prosecutor Daniel Suneson said in his closing comments that he was seeking a six-month sentence for the rapper, who himself had said earlier Friday that community service would be a proper punishment.
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5:45 p.m.
The bodyguard of A$AP Rocky has told a Swedish court that the strange behavior and the “glossy” eyes of the man that the American rapper and his entourage are accused of assaulting in June alerted him that something was not right.
Timothy Leon Williams testified before Stockholm District Court on Friday that he saw 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari, the alleged victim, approaching the rapper’s entourage outside a restaurant in Stockholm and trying to talk with them.
Speaking in English, Williams said he didn’t understand what language Jafari was speaking. Williams said he knew “something’s not right about him. I’m noticing it because I’m a bodyguard. I’m looking at him and saw that his eyes were really glossy, like he’s on something.”
Williams went on to explain the details of the June 30 brawl, testimony that mirrored what Mayers told the court on Thursday.
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3 p.m.
A witness in the A$AP Rocky assault case revised her story from initial police reports, testifying in a Swedish court Friday that she didn’t actually see the American rapper hitting a man with a bottle.
The young woman and her friend, testifying anonymously, were questioned via video link at Stockholm District Court.
Witness testimonies were the highlight of the third day of the trial where the 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, and two other suspects are accused by prosecutors of beating 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari on June 30.
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.
