Sweden drops Assange rape investigation
November 19, 2019
Swedish prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they were dropping a probe against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who had been accused by two women of assaulting them in Stockholm in 2010.
Although officials said they believed the women's claims to be "credible," they have now said that there does not appear to be enough evidence for an indictment. This follows a June decision by a Swedish court that Assange should not be detained.
Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson wrote on Twitter that public conversation should now focus on the "the belligerent prosecution of the United States and the threat it poses" to free speech.
Assange had consistently denied the allegations, claiming it was a ploy by Washington to get him extradited to the United States.
To evade an international arrest warrant, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012. In April 2019, however, Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said that the 48-year-old Australian had violated the terms of his asylum and he was expelled from the embassy. He was then promptly arrested by British authorities.
Assange is currently serving a 50-week jail sentence in the UK for skipping bail. He is still fighting extradition to the US after he has served this sentence, where he is wanted for violating the Espionage Act in connection with Wikileaks' publishing of classified documents.
His extradition hearing is set for February 2020.
es/rt (AFP, dpa)