A$AP Rocky Charged With Assault In Sweden

Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky has been charged with assault after a June confrontation in Stockholm, Sweden.

However, A$AP’s attorney, Slobodan Jovicic, maintains his client was defending himself after being assaulted and that A$AP is innocent. “We think it was self-defense, but the prosecutor has chosen to go with the injured party’s version,” Jovicic said, adding that his client is “very disappointed” that the prosecutor has “chosen to go with the other party’s version” of events.

According to reports, Prosecutors have relied on cell phone video footage, surveillance video from the Grand Hotel and a burger restaurant, text messages from A$AP Rocky’s bodyguard about the assault, texts from the assistant’s phone and DNA analysis from a bottle used in the assault.

In court documents seen by CNN, Swedish public prosecutor Daniel Suneson claimed A$AP Rocky and two other men assaulted the victim and beat him with a whole or part of a glass bottle. Suneson said he determined the incident constituted as a crime “despite claims of self-defense and provocation” after reviewing video material and witness statements.

Footage posted by TMZ and others posted by A$AP Rocky of the brawl have been at the heart of the investigation. Video clips A$AP posted to his Instagram show him and his entourage repeatedly asking two men to stop following them. In the caption, he wrote one of the men hit a member of his security “in the face with headphones,” and reasserted that he was “innocent.”

However, in a video posted by TMZ, A$AP Rocky appears to grab one of the men and throw him to the ground. Another angle looks as though the rapper and his crew are kicking and punching the man.

According to transcripts of police interrogations included in court documents seen by CNN, A$AP justified the fight, stating his bodyguard tried to “calm things down” prior to the altercation and that “we were three against two.” When asked about his role in the fight, A$AP allegedly told police, “I got him down on the ground. I hit and kicked.”

All three men have been charged for their involvement in the altercation and will remain in Swedish custody until the trial, which begins on Tuesday.