A$AP Rocky is back in court today and due to take the stand to give his account of a fight that ended with him in jail facing two years behind bars for assault.
Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, has previously claimed self defence and released a video that appears to show accuser Mustafa Jafari and a friend provoking him – but has otherwise stayed silent.
Jafari, 19, took the stand for cross-examination Thursday morning, Expressen reported, where he claimed Rocky and his entourage ‘smashed me over the head with a bottle, and then ran away’.
Police arrested Mayers on June 3 and he has been in jail ever since. His mother Renee Black visited him behind bars for the first time Tuesday.
A$AP Rocky appeared at the second day of his assault trial Thursday where he is expected to give his account of a June 30 fight that ended with him in jail charged with assault (pictured in a sketch during his first court date Tuesday)
Renee Black, the rapper’s mother, was also in court for the second day of the trial having visited her son for the first time in jail this week
Ms Black made her way past a gang of reporters outside the court Thursday, where cross-examination of both Rocky and his accuser will take place
Black, who flew to Stockholm to attend the trial, visited him in detention following his court appearance on Tuesday.
The parents of Mayers’s two friends, who also stand accused of assault, also visited their children behind bars.
A fourth person, a bodyguard, was initially arrested alongside Mayers but released.
Much of the trial has centred around analysing videos and whether bottles had been used as weapons during the alleged assault.
The videos include one published by US celebrity news outlet TMZ, where the rapper can be seen throwing a young man to the ground and apparently aiming several punches at him while he is down.
Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, was arrested in Stockholm on July 3 and accused of assault over a fight on June 30
The court was also shown videos posted to the artist’s own Instagram, purporting to show the lead up to the brawl, which the prosecution argued had been heavily edited.
Mayers’ lawyer Slobodan Jovicic argued that the rapper’s actions were the result of the plaintiff and his friend showing ‘a threatening, aggressive and deeply provoking behaviour’.
‘He admits that he threw the plaintiff on the ground, that he stepped on his arm and punched or pushed his shoulder,’ Jovicic told the court, saying it was a case of ‘self-defence’.
On Thursday, the trial will resume at 9:00am local time and the court will hear Mayers’ own testimony. The trial is scheduled to conclude with closing arguments on Friday.
After the trial has ended the court will announce when it will be able to render a verdict and also decide whether the accused should be kept in custody in the meantime.
Mayers was remanded in custody while the case was being investigated as he was considered a ‘flight risk’.
Robert C. OBrien, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, attends court after being sent by Donald Trump, who has been agitating for Mayers’s release
Two of Mayers’s friends are also on trial accused of assault. Pictured are parents of one of the co-accused attending the trial Thursday
Journalists outside the district court in Stockholm, during the second day of ASAP Rocky’s trial
Donald Trump has taken up Mayers’s cause after a meeting with Kim Kardashian, and has since hit out at the Swedish Prime Minister on Twitter
Fans, fellow artists and US Congress members have been campaigning for his release.
An online petition called #JusticeForRocky has garnered more than 640,000 signatures. Social media campaigns have urged fans to boycott Swedish brands such as IKEA.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for the rapper to be freed, drawing complaints of interference from Swedish politicians.
Robert C. O’Brien, US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, had been sent to attend the trial.
‘The president asked me to come here and support these American citizens and we’re working to bring them back as soon as possible,’ O’Brien told AFP.
A$AP Rocky was on Thursday charged with assault in Sweden, despite President Trump’s personal plea to the Swedish Prime Minster requesting the rapper be released. Pictured: Video grabs of the fight, posted by the Grammy-nominated star
A video of last month’s street brawl appeared to show the US rapper and his security team hurling a man to the ground and punching and kicking him (video footage pictured)
Jafari showed police the extent of his injuries from the alleged assault, in which he sustained cuts to his arms legs and face