Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s comments on Saturday came after the intervention of celebrities including Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
NBC News reports that the Swedish leader on Saturday warned that American rapper ASAP Rocky will not be getting special treatment despite President Donald Trump’s public intervention into the case.
Trump raised Rocky’s detention from the Oval Office and in a Tweet on Friday after First Lady Melania Trump and a number of celebrities asked that he intervene.
On Saturday, the president said he had “a very good call” with Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on the subject. He said he told Lofven that Rocky was not a flight risk and “offered to personally vouch for his bail.”
Trump added: “Our teams will be talking further, and we agreed to speak again in the next 48 hours!”
The Swedish PM said earlier that he was aware Trump “has a personal interest in the case.”
But Lofven said while he would welcome a conversation with Trump, it was not his place to sway the prosecutors or courts.
“I will explain that the Swedish judicial system is independent,” he said of a possible call with the president. “In Sweden, everyone is equal before the law, and this includes visitors from other countries.”
Prosecutors announced Friday that Rocky will remain in jail while police finish their investigation into a fight in downtown Stockholm.
The rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, 30, was detained on “probable grounds for serious assault” on July 3. Stockholm’s District Court granted prosecutor Daniel Suneson’s request that Rocky should continue to be held in pretrial detention until July 25, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Trump said in the Oval Office later on Friday that “Many, many members of the African American community have called me, friends of mine, and said, ‘Can you help?’”
The president added: “So, I personally don’t know ASAP Rocky, but I can tell you that he has tremendous support from the African American community in this country and when I say African American I think I can really say from everybody in the country because we’re all one.”
