Alleged A$AP Rocky victim testifies: ‘I felt they were going to beat me to death’
The teenager A$AP Rocky and his entourage allegedly beat bloody in a Sweden street brawl last month testified on Tuesday he thought he was going to get killed during the fight.
Mustafa Jafari, 19, took the stand during the first day of the Grammy-nominated artist’s trial on assault charges to give his side of the June 30 melee in Stockholm.
“I felt they were going to beat me to death,” the teen said in Persian, through an interpreter, according to CNN.
Jafari said he had been on his way to visit a friend when he came across the 30-year-old rapper and his group outside a hamburger restaurant and asked if they had seen his pal.
That’s when Rocky’s bodyguard told him to go away and then pushed him, Jafari said.
“If someone says in a nice way, ‘Go away from here,’ then you do,” he testified, according to The New York Times. “But he just pushed me. What he did what wrong.”
The bodyguard then grabbed Jafari by the throat, lifted him off the ground and carried him away from the group — breaking the teen’s headphones in the process, he said.
Jafari, who said he had no clue who the rapper was, ran after the group, complaining about his broken headphones.
“While I’m talking to them, all of a sudden one of these guys comes from behind and hits me with a bottle,” smashing it behind his right ear, he testified.
Once he was on the ground, Jafari said he was kicked and punched at least 20 times by the group.
Video of the brawl that prosecutors played in court shows Rocky throwing a man to the ground. Other footage was also played in court, but none showed a bottle being used in the fight.
The teen suffered cuts to his face, arms and hands and needed 13 stitches, said his lawyer, Magnus Stromberg.
Stomberg said his client is asking for about $16,000 in damages for injuries and loss of income.
Rocky — whose real name is Rakim Mayers — has maintained he acted in self defense. He and two other men charged in the incident, Bladimir Emilio Corniel and David Tyrone Rispers, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
The rapper’s lawyer, Slobodan Jovicic stressed that his client “didn’t want any trouble” and alleged that Jafari had shown “aggressive and deeply provocative behavior.”
Rocky “has been harassed in the past” because of his fame and “there are some people who don’t always wish him well,” Jovicic said.
“In this case, the bodyguard made the assessment that [Jafari] should move on … and not to come close,” the lawyer said. The bodyguard hasn’t been charged.
Rocky has been in custody since July 3, attracting the attention of President Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to intervene, as well as stars like Kim Kardashian and husband Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
Trump sent Robert O’Brien, a presidential special envoy for hostage affairs, to Stockholm District Court to monitor the trial and show support for Rocky, according to Swedish news agency TT.
Fans of Rocky’s packed the court, and his mother, Renee Black, also attended the proceeding.
“This is a nightmare,” Black said, according to Swedish media.
The trial will continue on Thursday, when Rocky is expected to testify. If convicted, he could face up two years in prison.
With Post wires.
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