US rapper had been in detention since 3 July over alleged brawl in Swedish capital

A Swedish court has freed A$AP Rocky and two co-defendants until 14 August, when the verdicts in their trial for assault will be announced.

The platinum-selling US rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, and two members of his entourage have been in detention since 3 July in connection with a street brawl in central Stockholm on 30 June.

The case has prompted outrage among Mayers’ fans and inflamed international tensions after celebrities including Kim Kardashian West and Justin Bieber backed a #JusticeForRocky campaign and Donald Trump publicly demanded Mayers’ release.

There were cheers and applause in the courtroom when senior district court judge Per Lennerbrant announced the decision. “We’re so happy,” said Renee Black, Mayers’ mother, who attended all three days of her son’s trial in Stockholm district court.

The US president was swift to react to the decision, tweeting: “A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!”

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!

“He is a free person for now,” Mayers’ lawyer, Slobodan Jovicic, told reporters. But he cautioned: “It is a success that they are out, but that does not mean that they have been cleared. We now have a nervous wait for two more weeks.”

Releasing the defendants from custody could indicate the rapper will be found not guilty, or that a guilty verdict would lead only to a suspended term or a jail sentence shorter than the time the rapper has already spent in prison, legal experts have said.

Earlier on Friday the public prosecutor, Daniel Suneson, demanded that Mayers serve six months in prison for assault causing actual bodily harm to the alleged victim, Mustafa Jafari, in the incident outside a hamburger restaurant.

“For several reasons, I do not think that anything other than a prison sentence is appropriate in this case,” the prosecutor said.

However Jovicic told the court his client should be released, saying there was “no basis to believe the description of the crime applies to my client – he should be acquitted and set free today.”

The prosecution alleged that after a violent altercation over a pair of headphones, Mayers, 30, threw Jafari, 19, to the ground, after which he and his two companions kicked and punched him and hit him on the body and head with a bottle.

Two women who witnessed the brawl told the court on Friday they were in a restaurant when they recognised the platinum-selling rapper outside. They saw him push Jafari over and punch or kick him, they said, but could not confirm he had used a bottle as a weapon.

Profile Who is A$AP Rocky? Show Hide Named after one half of the hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, Rakim Athelaston Mayers was born in New York in 1988. He adopted the name A$AP Rocky when he began his career in 2007, joining the A$AP Mob crew. Mayers had a troubled childhood. His elder brother was murdered, his dad was arrested for drug dealing, and he spent some time moving around homeless shelters with his mother and sister. His older sister died of a drug overdose in 2016. Mayers himself served two weeks in prison for drug dealing in 2004. He came to prominence with the release of the mixtape Live.Love.A$AP in 2011. Having signed to a major-label deal for a reported $3m, his 2013 debut album, Long.Live.A$AP debuted at No 1 on the US Billboard 200. Follow-up At.Long.Last.A$AP was also a No 1 album in the US, certified as a platinum seller, and featured a seemingly unlikely collaboration with Rod Stewart. His creative partner and best friend A$AP Yams (Steven Rodriguez) died in January 2015 in an accidental drug overdose. In 2016, Mayers became the first African-American to be the face of Dior Homme.

In 2013, he was charged with slapping a woman at Philadelphia's Made in America festival. This was eventually settled out of court in 2015. He has been involved in other altercations, in Toronto, New Zealand, and London, the latter involving a bagel and an Uber in Brick Lane. He unexpectedly declared a love of the Piccadilly Line while delivering the Red Bull Music Academy lecture in the city, and has collaborated with British rapper Skepta on the acclaimed track Praise the Lord (Da Shine).

He has caused controversy by appearing to describe the Black Lives Matter movement as a “bandwagon”, saying “I don’t wanna talk about no fucking Ferguson and shit because I don’t live over there. I live in fucking SoHo and Beverly Hills. I can’t relate.” Photograph: John Ricard/Getty Images

Jafari is claiming SEK 139,700 (£12,050) in damages for the alleged attack, which left him needing hospital treatment for cuts to his arms, legs and head and a fractured rib.

Mayers and the two members of his entourage conceded hitting the plaintiff but denied using a bottle. All said they were responding to harassment and provocations and have pleaded not guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.

Mayers, whose first two albums went to No 1 in the US, told the court on Thursday he had been attacked several times in recent years and had been “shocked and scared” by the incident. He had asked Jafari to leave him and his crew alone, he said.

Mayers’s bodyguard testified that Jafari had been “harassing” and “following” the group and “swung” at him prior to the fight. The judge ruled a previous assault conviction against the plaintiff was admissible evidence.

Much of the trial centred on the video evidence, some of which appeared on the celebrity news site TMZ and, in edited form, on Mayers’ Instagram page, and the question of whether a bottle had been used.

The case sparked a diplomatic spat after Kardashian West appealed directly to Trump, prompting the president to call the Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, and offer to “personally vouch for [Mayers’] bail, or an alternative”.

Löfven said that in the Swedish judicial system, prosecutors and courts were independent, after which Trump tweeted that he was “very disappointed”, adding: “Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem!”