Rapper ASAP Rocky is facing another six days in a Swedish prison while police finish their investigation into a fight in downtown Stockholm, prosecutors announced Friday.
Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, 30, was detained on "probable grounds for serious assault" 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.
The announcement followed calls from reality television star Kim Kardashian West, British singer Rod Stewart and many other prominent figures that Sweden free the American rapper.
President Donald Trump also responded to calls to help Rocky at the behest of first lady Melania Trump.
“Many, many members of the African American community have called me, friends of mine, and said, ‘Can you help?’" Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. "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."
"Actually, the one who knew about A$AP Rocky was our first lady. She was telling me about, ‘Can you help ASAP Rocky?’" he said.
The first lady added: "We’ll be working with the State Department and we hope to get him home soon.”
He later tweeted that he spoke to Kanye West and that he "will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping" Rocky.
The ruling didn't come as a surprise, Rocky's lawyer Slobodan Jovicic said, but it was "disappointing."
"I think it's very unjust," he told reporters following the hearing. "He is very tainted (by) this."
The two-time Grammy nominee was arrested with three other people a day after headlining the Smash x Stadion hip-hop festival in the Swedish capital.
Rocky and members of his entourage were alleged to have been involved in the brawl June 30 in which authorities said a person was beaten and cut with broken bottles. He has denied the assault accusation.
Before his arrest, videos posted to Rocky's Instagram account shows that he and members of his entourage were arguing with two men on the street, telling the men to stop following them.
One bodyguard was released without charge soon after Rocky and two of his associates were arrested. But a judge extended the detention of Rocky on Friday after ruling that he was a flight risk.
Jovicic maintained that Rocky and his associates were acting in self-defense after being provoked by the other men on the street.
"They begged and pleaded to be left alone," he said.
He said that designating Rocky as a flight risk was "unreasonable" because he is a well-known celebrity, and while he must travel for work, he is determined to prove his innocence.
Even if Rocky were guilty, his continued detention and financial losses are "disproportional" punishment to the crime he is being accused of, Jovicic added.
In a Twitter post Thursday, Kardashian West thanked President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration for trying to get Rocky released.
NBC News has not confirmed Kardashian West's claims about the Trump administration's role in the case.
The rapper has had to cancel several shows in his European tour while he remains in custody.
