As ASAP Rocky’s trial for assault continues in Sweden, a new video has emerged shedding light on some of the murky details of the case. Although the case was seemingly sparked by initial videos showing Rocky and his entourage administering an old-fashioned, Harlem beatdown to a pair of young men on the streets of Stockholm, it remains unclear how the incident started in the first place. While Rocky and his team maintain they were acting in self-defense after one of their alleged victims, Mustafa Jafari, broke his headphones attacking Rocky’s bodyguard, the new video appears to show the bodyguard giving him reason. You can see the new video on TMZ.
Jafari was not charged with assault by reasons of self-defense, with Stockholm police determining that the punch that broke the headphones was thrown in self-defense. The new video appears to corroborate this reading of events, as the bodyguard appears to lose patience with Jafari during a heated discussion, grabbing him around the neck or shoulders and lifting him off the ground. It seems clear that the bodyguard initiates the physical part of the confrontation, giving Jafari the conditions for self-defense. However, the video fails to explain why ASAP Rocky is charged with the assault, rather than the bodyguard. Although it’s clear from the original videos that in the brawl that came after, Rocky was as much a participant as anyone else, it still doesn’t look like he was the one who threw the first punch or even the second one.
Hopefully, as the trial continues, more details will offer explanation why Rocky was detained for so long and charged when it’s clear there were so many other factors involved.
