Julian Assange will no longer face rape charges in Sweden, the country has announced
Sweden has announced that it has abandoned legal action against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over rape allegations.
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Sweden has dropped its decade-long rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Assange, currently sitting in London’s Belmarsh Prison, has long denied he sexually assaulted a Swedish woman at a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm back in 2010.
Supporters of the Wikileaks founder welcomed the decision to drop the rape investigation but said their focus is now solely on stopping Britain from sending Assange to the United States to face espionage charges.
Swedish deputy director of prosecutions Eva-Marie Persson said the woman who alleges Assange raped her is “credible” but that the evidence is now too old and too weak.
“I would like to emphasise that the injured party has submitted a credible and reliable version of events. Her statements have been coherent, extensive and detailed,” Ms Persson said.
“However, my overall assessment is that the evidential situation has been weakened to such an extent that that there is no longer any reason to continue the investigation.”
Assange first hauled himself up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden.
Since then, a Swedish court ruled last June that Assange did not need to be detained over the rape allegations - he was never charged - and could answer questions from London.
Despite the news, Assange will remain in jail in the UK until he faces trial in February over the extradition request from the US.
He was thrown out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in April and now is serving a 50-week sentence for ignoring bail conditions from 2012.
Assange is wanted by American authorities for the massive dumping of diplomatic cables and military secrets that made him and Wikileaks famous in 2010.
He has been held in the health ward at Belmarsh prison and is facing a full extradition hearing in February.
The Queensland-born Wikileaks founder is looking at a 175-year prison sentence in the United States if he gets convicted on 17 spying charges and one of computer hacking.
Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson dismissed the Swedish rape allegations on Tuesday and said his focus was now solely on keeping his organisation’s founder from being extradited to the US.
“Sweden has dropped its preliminary investigation into Mr Assange for the third time, after reopening it without any new evidence or information,” he said.
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“Let us now focus on the threat Mr Assange has been warning about for years: the belligerent prosecution of the United States and the threat it poses to the First Amendment (of the US Constitution).”
Greg Barns, Assange’s Australian legal adviser, said: “The decision by Sweden is the only one it could have taken. It finally recognises that Julian Assange adamant denial of wrongdoing is the truth. It is the US that must now be persuaded to drop it’s unfair and dangerous pursuit of Assange.”
He added: “Australia must now step up its actions to protect an Australian citizen whose life hangs in the balance.”
Originally published as Julian Assange will no longer face rape charges in Sweden, the country has announced