A$AP Rocky to Remain in Jail in Sweden
The Grammy-nominated rapper was first detained two weeks ago, on July 3. He was in Sweden to perform at a music festival.
It started as a quarrel on a quiet Stockholm street, but the case of ASAP Rocky, the rapper detained in Sweden on a preliminary charge of assault, has escalated into an international incident, with politicians and diplomats weighing in, and his celebrity backers pulling strings at the White House.
On Friday a court in Stockholm approved a request from prosecutors to hold Rocky in detention for at least six more days, on the grounds that the rapper was a flight risk. A spokesman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority said another hearing would be held on July 25 to determine whether he would be detained further.
Rocky, 30, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused of assaulting a man in Stockholm on June 30 while he was in the city on tour. The rapper and two other men were detained on July 5 so that prosecutors could investigate. (An investigation into a fourth man, Rocky’s bodyguard, ended without the man being detained.)
Since then, Swedish officials have been defending the country’s justice system from accusations of racism and its prisons from charges of human rights abuse — unexpected indictments against a nation often seen as a paragon of social liberalism.
ASAP Rocky gick till attack mot en man mitt på gatan i centrala Stockholm. Rapparen misstänks nu för grov misshandel, enligt poliskällor. Här är filmen som fångade det våldsamma bråket.
I filmklippet kan man se hur ASAP Rocky, vars riktiga namn är Rakim Mayers, 30, sliter tag i en person och kastar denna genom luften och ner i marken.Tre andra personer i rapparens sällskap ger sig sen in i slagsmålet och slår och sparkar den attackerade mannen.
Rocky, 30, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused of assaulting a man in Stockholm on June 30 while he was in the city on tour. The rapper and two other men were detained on July 5 so that prosecutors could investigate. (An investigation into a fourth man, Rocky’s bodyguard, ended without the man being detained.) Rocky himself has said he had acted in self-defense. In a clip posted by the rapper on Instagram, he and his entourage repeatedly tell two men to stop following them. “We don’t want to fight you,” Rocky says in the video.
The worlds of music and politics came together to rally for Rocky’s cause when Kanye West, the rapper, asked his wife Kim Kardashian to call President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to see if something could be done, according to a person familiar with the communications who spoke anonymously because they weren’t authorized to discuss them.
Ms. Kardashian called Mr. Kushner, who raised the issue with the president, the person said. Mr. Trump directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to work with Swedish authorities to make sure Rocky’s conditions of detention were fair and that the State Department received regular updates. On Friday, Mr. Trump, who has faced a bruising week over his record on race relations for telling four nonwhite congresswomen to “go back” to their home countries, offered a different account of how he got involved, saying he had received calls from his African-American friends urging him to help. He also credited the first lady, Melania Trump, with bringing the issue to his attention.
“We are one,” Mr. Trump said. “We hope to get him home soon.”He later said on Twitter that he had just spoken with Mr. West and would be calling the Swedish prime minister about the case.
Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the United States, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that she was concerned about “misunderstandings” that had arisen. “We have a fair and just legal system,” she said.
Rocky is allowed to be with other inmates for up to three hours a day, Ms. Olofsdotter said. Giving detainees their own room, rather than making them sleep with other inmates, is “a good thing,” she added. “That is not solitary confinement.”
Henrik Olsson Lilja, Rocky’s own lawyer, undermined his team’s accusation that the rapper was being kept in inhumane conditions in an interview with Dagens Nyheter last week. The lawyer, who visited Rocky in his cell, said he was being “treated fairly” and that, contrary to what the Change.org petition said, he had access to food.
Mr. Olsson Lilja said that sometimes the cells, which have no toilets, smell of urine, but this is usually because inmates have relieved themselves in the sink.
How is Kim Kardashian involved?
Trump’s remarks came shortly after Kim Kardashian West indicated that she lobbied the White House to secure the musician’s release.
 |
| Jared Kushner, left, and Kim Karhian at the White House on June 13. |
Two days later, Rocky changed his legal team.
But Rocky’s was a simple case, and all foreigners facing similar charges would be detained as flight risks, she said.
Ms. Wegerstad said she understood that the situation looked different when viewed from the United States. “You could say it’s a problem that Swedish citizens are treated very differently from how foreigners are treated,” she said. “I guess the reason why it has involved so many feelings is that this is a very famous person.”
Swedish Officials: #JusticeForRocky Demand that Rocky Be Released from Swedish Officials chng.it/Wc4MXFTj via @Change
5,281 people are talking about this
Joe Coscarelli and Katie Rogers contributed reporting.
Comments
Post a Comment