Witness In ASAP Rocky Trial Revises Testimony, Swedish Prosecutors Seek Six Month Sentence For Rapper

One of the witnesses in the ASAP Rocky assault trial has revised her story from initial police reports. In her new testimony, the woman claimed that she didn’t actually see Rocky hitting the alleged victim, Mustafa Jafari, with a glass bottle.

The young woman and her friend, who testified anonymously, were questioned via video link at Stockholm District Court. One of the women testified that she heard a bottle break but could not say whether someone in Rocky’s entourage threw the bottle on the ground or hit Jafari with it. 

She said she didn’t see the rapper holding a bottle during the altercation and her friend testified that she didn’t see anyone hitting Jafari with a bottle at all. However, both women testified that they did see Rocky and his entourage beating and kicking Jafari.

“Everything happened very quickly. We were scared for our lives,” the first woman told the court. “He [Jafari] was bleeding. He showed his injuries on his hand. He also said he had a sore back.”

The rapper, 30, pleaded not guilty and continues to assert he was acting in self-defense when Jafari and another man continuously harassed them in the street. 

But according to BBC News, the self-defense claim won’t work with prosecutors. If convicted, the prosecution is seeking a six-month jail sentence for Rocky, and possibly up to ten months because they said evidence suggests glass bottles were used during the altercation and the situation continued to get physical after witnesses stopped recording.

The prosecution didn’t believe Rocky was scared by the situation and added that Rocky’s bodyguard should have known how to contact the police, or they could have asked for assistance from customers in a nearby restaurant. They also said Rocky and his crew had “every possibility” to remove themselves from the situation, and that they did not need to use “self-defense” as they claimed. 

The prosecution concluded that Rocky and his crew were not in an emergency situation and had time to decide how to properly conduct themselves. They believe he should be convicted due to “excess” use of force against Jafari.