A$AP Rocky released from Swedish jail pending verdict in assault trial
American rapper A$AP Rocky was freed from a Swedish jail on Friday pending a verdict in his trial. President Trump tweeted shortly after the ruling that the rapper "is on his way home to the United States," although it wasn't immediately clear from the judge's decision if he could leave the country.
Mr. Trump had sought earlier to personally intervene on the rapper's behalf, a move rebuffed by Sweden's leader. On Friday Mr. Trump tweeted, "It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!"
The rapper issued a statement on Instagram later Friday night thanking supporters.
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Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused with two others of beating a 19-year-old man in Stockholm on June 30.
A Swedish court has ruled that the three suspects can be freed from detention until the verdict is announced Aug. 14.
Mayers entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday. Prosecutor Daniel Suneson said in his closing comments on Friday that he was seeking a six-month sentence for the rapper, who himself had said earlier Friday that community service would be a proper punishment.
A witness in the A$AP Rocky assault case revised her story from initial police reports, testifying Friday that she didn't actually see Mayers hitting a man with a bottle.
Whether or not 19-year-old Mustafa 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.