Sweden drops rape investigation against Julian Assange

The Australian native has avoided extradition to Sweden for close to eight years, having stayed in refuge at an Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.

Assange, who denies the allegations, was evicted from the embassy and has been sentenced to 50 weeks of jail time for breaching bail conditions, is being held at Belmarsh prison in London.

Swedish prosecutors originally intended to drop the rape investigation nearly two years ago, stating that they did not have the means to move forward with the investigation while Assange stayed in the Ecuadorian embassy, according to the BBC.

In May of 2019, Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden’s deputy director of public prosecutions, publicly announced the reopening of the case, due to their being “probable cause to suspect” that Assange had committed the alleged rape.

The alleged rape case against Assange was from a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted at a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010. Assange has vehemently denied all allegations against him, saying the sex was consensual.

In June of 2019, though, UK Home Secretary Sajid Javed approved the U.S.’ extradition request against Assange, where he is wanted on 18 counts of leaking American secrets, including the famous Podesta emails. Those leaks led Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to say Assange must “answer for what he has done.”

Now, though, that same Director of Public Prosecutions, Eva-Marie Persson says they will no longer be moving forward with the investigation.

“The reason for this decision is that the evidence has weakened considerably due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question.”

He also previously faced investigations for accusations of molestation and unlawful coercion. These cases were dropped in 2015 due to statute of limitations laws.