A Swedish court on Wednesday found A$AP Rocky guilty of assault, according to multiple reports. However, the 30-year-old rapper will not have to go back to jail. Instead, according to NBC News, he “was handed a conditional sentence after the court found that the assault was not ‘of such a serious nature’ as to warrant more time behind bars.”
Prior to the verdict, Rocky was facing six months behind bars for his role in a street fight in Stockholm caught on video that he claimed was actually self-defense. He was released Aug. 2 after being held for weeks in a jail described as having despicable conditions and promptly returned to the U.S.
The U.S. previously threatened Sweden with “negative consequences” if the rapper wasn’t released from jail, NBC News reported earlier this month. “The government of the United States of America wants to resolve this case as soon as possible to avoid potentially negative consequences to the U.S.-Swedish bilateral relationship,” the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs wrote to Swedish prosecutors.
Sweden’s prosecutor-general, Petra Lundh, denied the demand.
“No other prosecutor, not even I, may interfere with a specific case or try to affect the prosecutor responsible,” Lundh responded in a letter.
It’s not clear if the U.S. had anything to do with Rocky’s release, even though Trump will surely try to take full credit.
According to a local media outlet in Sweden, prosecutor Daniel Suneson claimed police have the entire video of the incident and that it was not in self-defense as the rapper claimed. There was surveillance footage from a restaurant that allegedly contradicts what Rocky posted on social media. You can watch the video, here.
Rocky had been on a European tour when the fight broke out with local media blaming the rapper. The very next day TMZ published the video of the fight, which purportedly showed Rocky and two people in his entourage fighting against one other person. It also showed several men accused of Rocky and his crew of breaking a pair of headphones.
https://twitter.com/100mob_promo/status/1147179540290162694
Another video appeared to show Rocky trying to make peace before the fight started.
That led to Rocky posting videos to his Instagram account claiming he was “INNOCENT.”
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Rocky and the two people in his entourage reportedly surrendered to local authorities on July 2. As a result, Rocky has missed multiple tour dates.
Some of Rocky’s words have come back to haunt him. In a 2016 interview with “The Breakfast Club” radio show, Rocky appeared to distance himself from social justice issues and the Black Lives Matter movement as a whole.
“So every time something happens because I’m Black I gotta stand up? What the fuck am I, Al Sharpton now? I’m A$AP Rocky. I did not sign up to be no political activist,” Rocky said at the time. “I don’t wanna talk about no fucking Ferguson and shit because I don’t live over there! I live in fucking Soho and Beverly Hills. I can’t relate. I’m in the studio; I’m in these fashion studios; I’m in these bitches’ drawers. I’m not doing anything outside of that. That’s my life.”
Welcome back home, Rocky.
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