A$AP Rocky found guilty, but spared prison sentence

BERLIN – A$AP Rocky and two associates were found guilty of assault by a Swedish court on Wednesday but will face no prison time, capping a case that drew international attention – including from President Donald Trump, who provoked a low-level diplomatic spat with Sweden after calling for the rapper’s release.

The verdict is likely to quiet the outrage in the United States prompted by Rocky’s arrest and detention following a street brawl in Stockholm in late June in which the rapper was accused of stomping on a man after throwing him to the ground.

Rocky had maintained that he was acting in self-defense, but the Swedish judge presiding over his case said the evidence did not support that claim.

The judge did, however, conclude that the charges against Rocky were not as serious as presented by prosecutors and – given mitigating circumstances – did not merit a prison sentence.

“This act has not been of such a serious nature that a custodial sentence is something that must be chosen,” the presiding judge, Per Lennerbrant, said after the verdict was delivered on Wednesday.

But Rocky and his associates, Bladimir Emilio Corniel and David Tyrone Rispers, will still have to pay a total compensation of about $1,300 to the victim, 19-yearold Mustafa Jafari, and court fees related to the trial.

They had faced up to two years in jail for assaulting the man, but their temporary release after the trial ended on Aug. 2 was seen as an indication that he would be found not guilty or be sentenced to time served.

Rocky, whose birth name is Rakim Mayers, indicated over the weekend that he had expected to avoid prison.

Speaking at the Real Street Festival in California on Sunday, Rocky called the June altercation an “unfortunate event.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to go back to jail or nothing like that, that would be crazy,” he said, according to Reuters.