Sweden Is Dropping Its Rape Investigation Of Julian Assange

Author

27 May, 2017

An investigation into rape allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been dropped by prosecutors in Sweden, after nearly seven years.

The Wikileaks founder took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London in June 2012, days after losing court battles to avoid extradition to Sweden to rape accusations, which he denies.

Meanwhile the London Metropolitan Police has said it was still obliged to arrest Mr Assange should he leave the embassy since there is still an active warrant for a lesser charge.

Still, they acknowledged that the prosecutor's decision left Assange wanted for a "much less serious offence", and the police "will provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence".

The 45-year-old could face trial in the U.S. over the leaking hundreds of thousands of secret United States military and diplomatic documents.

At a news conference on Friday, Ny said that by remaining in the embassy, Assange had evaded the European Arrest Warrant that would have extradited him to Sweden.

Outside the U.K., the United States Justice Department is still wrestling with whether to charge Assange for leaking documents that they claim compromised national security, the New York Timesreported.

The Wikileaks founder has spent nearly seven years in refuge inside Ecuador's London embassy. The Ecuadorean embassy, where Assange has resided since losing his appeal against extradition to Sweden in 2012, is surrounded by British police officers 24 hours a day.

In 2015, when the sexual assault charges were dropped, Assange suggested that even if the rape investigation were to end, it was unlikely he would leave the Ecuadorian embassy because he feared the United Kingdom would extradite him to the United States, where he could be tried for WikiLeaks' public dispersion of top-secret documents; the U.K.is legally obligated to extradite Assange to the USA if given the opportunity.

It remains unclear whether there is a standing US extradition order for Assange. He said Assange had convinced Swedish prosecutors during a November meeting past year that he was not guilty of any sex offences.

Ny warned that the investigation of the alleged sexual offenses could be reopened if Assange visited Sweden before the statute of limitations expired in August 2020.

Some legal experts have said Sweden's action makes Assange's position more precarious because Britain had previously been bound to give priority to Sweden's extradition request over any warrant from the US.


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