US rapper ASAP Rocky found guilty of assault in Sweden

A Swedish court has found American rapper ASAP Rocky guilty of assault for his role in a street brawl in Stockholm.

The artist, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, earlier pleaded self-defence and said he had tried to avoid a confrontation with two men who he said were persistently following his entourage on June 30.

When he appeared at a previous hearing at Stockholm District Court, the rapper said one of the men picked a fight with one of his two bodyguards.

But the court has now ruled Mayers, 30, and his two co-accused bodyguards “were not in a situation” where they were entitled to self-defence and that they “assaulted the victim by hitting and kicking him”.

During the trial, prosecutors played video footage that showed the rapper throwing a young man to the ground.

Per Lennerbrant, the presiding judge, told a news conference “the evidence in the case has been complex”.

The victim, 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari, was struck in the back of the head with a bottle but “it could not be established by whom,” he said, adding that “this has affected the assessment of the seriousness of the crime”.

But the three defendants were “convicted of assault and sentenced to conditional sentences”.

That means they face no prison sentence in Sweden unless they commit a similar offence in the country again.

The trio, who had returned to the United States prior to the verdict and were not legally obliged to be present in Stockholm for it, were also ordered to pay a total of 12,500 Swedish kronor (£1,078) in compensation.