Following a month in Swedish jail, A$AP Rocky has been officially found guilty of assault stemming from an incident on June 30. The rapper’s arrest and subsequent prolonged detainment sparked international outrage and became the subject of foreign policy debate, with Donald Trump attempting to intervene. Ultimately, Rocky was released from jail prior to the verdict, and will not be required to serve any further time. The following is how the controversial case played out.
On July 3, a Swedish court ruled that A$AP Rocky be held at a Stockholm detention center for two weeks during an investigation into an alleged assault. Rocky, whose given name is Rakim Mayers, was deemed by the court to be a flight risk. His Swedish lawyer, Henrik Olsson Lilja, said that he would appeal the detention, insisting that Rocky would gladly return if and when a trial is scheduled.
The incident in question occurred on June 30. Video footage, published by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet last week, appears to show Rocky and members of his entourage fighting with a pair of men. The footage was filmed by bystanders and contains no dialogue between the parties or context from their earlier interactions. But around the same time the footage surfaced, Rocky posted a pair of videos to his Instagram account. One shows Rocky and members of his entourage, primarily a security guard, asking a pair of young men to stop following the group. Rocky captioned the clip: “SO A FEW DRUG ADDICTS ARE NOT MY FANS , WE DONT KNOW THESE GUYS AND WE DIDNT WANT TROUBLE, THEY FOLLOWED US FOR 4 BLOCKS, AND THEY WERE SLAPPING GIRLS BUTTS WHO PASSED, GIVE ME A BREAK.”