American rapper, ASAP Rocky, has arrived home after he was temporarily released from custody in Sweden.
The 30-year-old, real name Rakim Mayers, was freed on Friday to await a verdict in an assault trial on August 14.
He and two of his entourage have pleaded not guilty to assaulting a 19-year-old man in Stockholm in June.
All signs point to Rocky being acquitted, and TMZ reports that the rapper has vowed never to go back to Sweden if the verdict comes in as expected.
Over the past week, a court has heard evidence and testimonies about the brawl, which led to ASAP Rocky’s detention in the country.
The rapper says he, Bladimir Corniel and David Rispers were acting in self-defence in fighting that broke out near the Max Burger chain on 30 June, after two men allegedly refused to stop following his entourage.
But in court on Friday, the prosecution said ASAP Rocky and his companions had “every possibility” to leave the scene and that they were not in a position where they needed to use “self-defence”.
During his summing up, prosecutor Daniel Suneson told the Stockholm District Court the rapper should be jailed for about six months.
ASAP Rocky’s defence lawyer, Slobodan Jovicic, argued the incident was not a pre-meditated group assault and the rapper should be set free.
The Swedish judge, Per Lennerbrant, said the performer and his two co-accused could be released from custody and were free to leave the country ahead of his verdict.
Such a ruling may point to an acquittal or a sentence of less than the time already served, Reuters reported.
Mr Jovicic said his client “is a free person for now” but has a “nervous wait for two more weeks”.
The case has made waves internationally, with an online petition for the rapper’s release garnering more than 640,000 signatures.
US President Donald Trump was among those to back a #JusticeForRocky campaign that attracted the support of celebrities such as Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
The US president even sent his special envoy on hostage affairs – Robert O’Brien – to Sweden to attend the trial.
On Friday, Mr Trump claimed ASAP Rocky was “on his way home to the United States” in a tweet posted shortly after the ruling to temporarily free the rapper.
Mr O’Brien told reporters he had called the president to tell him the rapper “would be back in America soon”, but did not elaborate on the timescale.
