Judges in a Stockholm court Wednesday found American rapper A$AP Rocky guilty of assault but did not call for any additional jail time.
While Swedish prosecutors asked that the rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, to serve six-months in prison for his role in a June street fight in Stockholm, the judges decided he had already served enough jail time, having been held in a detention center from July 5 to the end of his trial on August 2, a little under one month.
Mr. Mayers and two of his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to assaulting a man in Stockholm. TMZ and other outlets published videos that appear to show him throwing another man to the ground, before his associates then kick and punch the man on the ground, giving him injuries that required medical attention.
Mr. Mayers said he was acting in self-defense and the plaintiff, Mustafa Jafari, had harassed him and his entourage and threw the first punch.
After the trial’s conclusion Aug. 2, the rapper was not required to return to prison or even remain in Sweden, which led to him and his entourage to quickly return back to the United States.
Mr. Mayers found himself in the U.S. political spotlight after he found an unlikely ally in President Trump, who pushed for Sweden to free the performer after rap artist Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, asked for the U.S. government to intervene.
The president shared critical messages on Twitter, called the Swedish prime minister and even dispatched a hostage-affairs envoy, Robert O’Brien — who warned the trial could have “negative consequences” for American-Swedish relations — to attend the trial.
The prime minister and other Swedish officials assured they wouldn’t intervene and let their justice system handle the case.
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