Sweden drops probe into rape allegations against Julian Assange; focus should now be on US prosecution, says WikiLeaks editor-in-chief

Stockholm: The alleged rape investigation involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently in prison in Britain, has been discontinued, a Swedish prosecutor said Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_6749251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. AP[/caption] “I want to inform about my decision to discontinue the preliminary investigation,” Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told a news conference. Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said in a tweet that the focus should now move onto the “threat” that Assange has been “warning about for years: the belligerent prosecution of the United States and the threat it poses to the First Amendment.”

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief: “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.⁰"

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 19, 2019

Tuesday’s decision follows a ruling in June by a Swedish court that Assange should not be detained . Two months earlier, Assange was evicted from the Ecuador Embassy in London where he had been holed up since 2012. He was immediately arrested and is currently serving a 50-week sentence in Britain for jumping bail in 2012. He is also fighting extradition to the US, which accuses him of publishing secret documents.