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ASAP Rocky Appeals Detention to Sweden’s Supreme Court

By AFP

08 July 2019   |   1:43 pm

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American rapper ASAP Rocky, currently detained in Stockholm suspected of assault, has appealed his detention to Sweden's Supreme Court, his lawyer said Monday.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 23, 2017 US rapper ASAP Rocky poses before the Christian Dior 2017 spring/summer Haute Couture collection on January 23, 2017 in Paris. American rapper ASAP Rocky was arrested in Stockholm this week, suspected of aggravated assault, after a street brawl part of which was caught on video, Swedish prosecutors said on July 4, 2019. (Photo by Patrick KOVARIK / AFP)

American rapper ASAP Rocky, currently detained in Stockholm suspected of assault, has appealed his detention to Sweden’s Supreme Court, his lawyer said Monday.

On Friday a Swedish district court decided the 30-year-old artist, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, should be kept in custody while prosecutors investigate a June 30 street brawl.

Mayers’ lawyer Henrik Olsson Lilja immediately appealed the decision, but was denied by the court of appeals. He told AFP on Monday that his client had therefore chosen to appeal the decision to Sweden’s Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court will this week decide on whether to look at the case, but it only accepts a fraction of cases submitted, accepting those it thinks will provide guidance for the lower courts in future cases.

The district court agreed to a request from Swedish prosecutor Fredrik Karlsson that Mayers be kept in custody during the investigation, one of his arguments being that he was a flight risk.

Olsson Lilja said he thought the case might interest the Supreme Court since he didn’t think the prosecutor had properly justified why Mayers was a flight risk — and that this also needed to be weighed against the consequences for his client, who was on a European tour.

“They haven’t tried this issue in this way before,” he added.

The district court’s decision means Mayers can be held in custody for two weeks, while the case is investigated. After that, it would require another hearing to extend his detention.

The rapper has already had to cancel shows in Norway, Poland, Ireland and the UK.

Brawl caught on video

Mayers was detained last week following an incident on June 30 which was partly captured in a video published by US celebrity news outlet TMZ.

The rapper, who was in Stockholm for a concert, can be seen throwing a young man into the street then aiming several punches at him while he is still down.

On July 2, Mayers posted his own videos on Instagram, which he said showed the lead up to the clash.

In those, the young man can be seen arguing with the musician over a pair of headphones, and the artist repeatedly asks that the man and his friend stop following them.

Mayers was born in New York and had a breakthrough in 2011 with the release of the mixtape “Live. Love. ASAP”. He followed that up in 2013 with the debut album “Long. Live. ASAP”.