US rapper A$AP Rocky faces trial in Sweden despite fan outrage

Weeks of detention over a street brawl stirred diplomatic tensions

US rapper A$AP Rocky faces assault charges in a Stockholm court on Tuesday over a June street brawl, after weeks of detention which has stirred diplomatic tensions and fan outrage.

The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was arrested on July 3 along with three other people following the fight in Stockholm on June 30. One of them, the rapper's bodyguard, was later released.

Part of the brawl was captured in an amateur video published by US celebrity news outlet TMZ, where the rapper can be seen throwing a young man into the street and then aiming several punches at him while he is down.

PHOTO: FILE

Mayers, who faces maximum jail time of two years if convicted of assault, has claimed he was acting in self-defence, saying he was responding to harassment and provocations by the plaintiff.

The precise circumstances of the brawl remain unclear, but before his arrest the rapper published videos of his own to Instagram purporting to show the lead-up to the fight.

A separate investigation into the plaintiff was dropped with prosecutors saying his actions were in self-defence.

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Despite the rapper's pleas of self-defence, prosecutor Daniel Suneson decided to press assault charges against the musician and two members of his entourage on July 25, stating that he believed what happened still amounted to a crime.

In announcing his decision to press charges, Suneson stressed that he "had more material to consider than what has been available on the internet".

PHOTO: FILE

According to the charge document filed with the Stockholm District Court, the evidence includes surveillance footage, witness testimony and text conversations that the prosecutor says prove there was no need for self-defence and that a bottle was used as a weapon in the alleged assault.

Photos of the alleged victim, taken by investigators, were published by Swedish media last week, revealing wounds seemingly caused by a sharp object.

Swedish law enforcement has also been accused of racism, and former US ambassador to Sweden Mark Brzezinski called the rapper's arrest a matter of "racial injustice".

But Mayers' lawyer Slobodan Jovicic has questioned the accusation, telling a press briefing last week that he thought Sweden was "not a racist society".

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