STOCKHOLM, July 19 — US rapper A$AP Rocky’s detention in Sweden was extended by six days today while prosecutors investigate him for aggravated assault over a street fight in Stockholm.
A district court agreed to prosecutors’ request for more time for their investigation of the 30-year-old performer, producer and model, whose real name is Rakim Mayers.
“The court decided that the artist will remain in custody until July 25 because of the flight risk,” Daniel Suneson, the prosecutor now in charge of the case, said in a statement. “This gives us time to complete the investigation.”
The artist’s lawyer, Slobodan Jovicic, said the decision was expected but unfair, and that A$AP Rocky was innocent.
“He (Mayers) believes he was assaulted and has acted in self-defence,” he told journalists.
The detention of Mayers, who attended the court dressed in a green T-shirt, has gained widespread attention. More than 600,000 people have signed an online petition for his release, while fellow artists have also expressed their support.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Carl Risch met Mayers on Friday, and was due to hold talks on the issue with the foreign ministry and the justice department during his two-day visit to Sweden.
Mayers was detained on July 3 along with his bodyguard and two other members of his entourage in connection with a fight in a Stockholm city-centre street in the early hours of June 30.
Before his arrest, he uploaded videos to his Instagram account of an altercation with two men, saying they had followed him and his entourage and that he had not wanted any trouble.
The bodyguard was released without charge while a judge on July 5 extended the detention of Mayers and his two other associates.
The performer was in Stockholm for a concert, and has had to cancel several shows in his European tour. — Reuters
