Sweden Drops Rape Charges Against Julian Assange, Revokes Arrest Warrant

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
May. 19, 2017

Sweden officially dropped its rape investigation Friday morning and revoked their arrest warrant against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, though the UK says they're going to arrest him if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy where he's been holed up.

From RT:
Sweden has dropped its rape investigation against Julian Assange and will revoke its arrest warrant, the Swedish Prosecution Authority has announced on its website.

The decision was made by Sweden’s director of public prosecution, who confirmed that she decided to discontinue the investigation against the WikiLeaks co-founder.




"Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.


Assange’s defense lawyer, Per Samuelson, has called the prosecution’s decision a “total victory.”

"The preliminary investigation has been dropped and the detention order has been withdrawn, and from Sweden's point of view this is now over," he told Reuters.

The decision marks an end to a seven-year stand-off.

...One of Assange’s lawyers said earlier on Friday that closing the investigation or lifting the European arrest warrant would not necessarily mean he could easily leave for Ecuador, which has granted him asylum.

“The first thing one likely needs to do is seek guarantees from the British authorities that he won’t be seized in some other way,” Melinda Taylor told TT news agency.

Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police have announced that Assange will still be arrested if he leaves the embassy.

“Now that the situation has changed and the Swedish authorities have discontinued their investigation into that matter, Mr Assange remains wanted for a much less serious offence,” it wrote in a statement.



Assange is wanted by Britain for skipping bail when he fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012.

A UN panel stated in February 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained, and that the UK and Sweden should take immediate steps to ensure his freedom of movement.

Assange declared the ruling a "victory that cannot be denied," while both Britain and Sweden disagreed that he was being denied freedom, as he had entered the Ecuadorian embassy voluntarily.
Live feed outside the embassy:



Trump should nominate this man to be the new FBI Director.

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