Swedish prosecutors have dropped an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange dating back to 2010.
The controversial Australian is currently serving 50 weeks in jail in London for breaching his bail conditions after being forcefully removed in April from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been holed up since 2012 in an attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden.
Assange was accused of sexual misconduct by two different women, one accusing him of rape and another of sexual assault following a 2010 conference in Stockholm involving WikiLeaks. Assange, now 48, has consistently denied the allegations, maintaining that the sex was consensual and that he was only avoiding returning to Sweden because he feared extradition to the U.S.
Though Sweden dropped the rape investigation in 2017, federal prosecutors re-opened the case after Assange was finally dislodged from the embassy where he had sought refuge for seven years.
“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,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement Monday, as reported by BBC.
“After conducting a comprehensive assessment of what has emerged during the course of the preliminary investigation I then make the assessment that the evidence is not strong enough to form the basis for filing an indictment,” Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Eva-Marie Persson announced Monday.
“I would like to emphasize that the injured party has submitted a credible and reliable version of events,” Persson stressed. “Her statements have been coherent, extensive and detailed; 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.”
BBC notes that prosecutors also held a news briefing in Stockholm, “saying that the decision to drop the inquiry had been taken after interviews with seven witnesses in the case.”
In addition to the rape and sexual assault charges, Assange was also accused of molestation and unlawful coercion; the investigations into those charges were dropped in 2015 due to statute of limitations.
The U.S. has long sought Assange’s extradition for his alleged role in a massive U.S. security breach. In June, the British government approved the U.S. request, though Assange remains for now in London’s Belmarsh prison for breaching his bail conditions.
In response to Sweden’s decision, Assange’s legal team issued a statement Monday reiterating his claim that the reason he refused to return to Sweden was not because he feared the allegations, which he denies, but because of the threat of extradition to the U.S.
“From the outset of Sweden’s preliminary investigation, Julian Assange’s expressed concern has been that waiting in the wings was a United States extradition request that would be unstoppable from Sweden — and result in his spending the rest of his life in a US prison,” said Assange’s lawyers, as reported by The Guardian. “Now that the U.S. does seek Mr Assange’s extradition to stand trial on unprecedented charges for journalistic work, it continues to be a matter of extreme regret that this reality has never been properly acknowledged and that the process in Sweden — with which Mr. Assange has always expressed his willingness to engage and indeed did so — became so exceptionally politicized itself.”