Some thoughts: The actual rape assertion was that he didn't use a condom
when having intercourse with the woman, if I remember correctly. Sweden has
unusual definitions of rape. The prosecutor was invited to interview Assenge
in the Ecuadorian embassy, but refused. So they could not clear him of the
charges.
Miriam
Truthdig
Sweden Drops Rape Inquiry Against Julian Assange
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/sweden_drops_rape_inquiry_against_julia
n_assange_20170519/
Posted on May 19, 2017
By Donald Kaufman
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking from London's Ecuadorean
Embassy in 2016. (Frank Augstein / AP)
Swedish prosecutors have dropped their seven-year-long investigation of rape
allegations against Julian Assange, but the WikiLeaks founder and publisher
still faces legal uncertainty in Britain and the United States.
Sweden's director of public prosecution, Marianne Ny, made the announcement
(https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/19/swedish-prosecutors-drop-juli
an-assange-investigation) Friday, saying she "has decided to discontinue
the investigation regarding suspected rape" because "at this point, all
possibilities to conduct the investigation are exhausted."
"In order to proceed with the case, Julian Assange would have to be formally
notified of the criminal suspicions against him," Ny explained. "We cannot
expect to receive assistance from Ecuador regarding this. Therefore, the
investigation is discontinued. If he, at a later date, makes himself
available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation
immediately."
Ny added it was "regrettable we have not been able to carry out the
investigation" but said "we are not making any pronouncement about guilt."
The New York Times wrote Friday, "The investigation could be reopened, [Ny]
said, if Mr. Assange returned to Sweden before August 2020, the time limit
for prosecution specified by the statute of limitations."
Ecuador granted political asylum to Assange in 2012. He has been living at
the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since then.
The investigation started in 2010. After a massive WikiLeaks dump of secret
U.S. military reports, two women accused Assange of rape and sexual assault.
According to The Guardian, Swedish authorities dropped the sexual assault
allegations by one of the women in 2015 "after the statute of limitations
expired."
Assange has always maintained that the rape allegations were false and that
he would go to Sweden to face the charges directly if Sweden would guarantee
he would not be extradited to the United States.
After Sweden's decision to end the rape investigation was announced, Assange
tweeted (https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/865553683387367425) :
"Detained for 7 years without charge by while my children grew up and my
name was slandered. I do not forgive or forget."
A lawyer representing a woman who claimed Assange raped her said "it is a
scandal that a suspected rapist can escape justice and thereby avoid the
courts. . My client is shocked, and a decision to drop the case won't make
her change [her assertion] that Assange exposed her to rape," The Local
reported
(https://www.thelocal.se/20170519/assange-accuser-calls-swedish-decision-a-s
candal-maintains-accusations-lawyer) .
Police in London said Assange still faces arrest for failing to meet bail
conditions. The Guardian reported that an arrest warrant was issued for
Assange after he entered the Ecuadorean Embassy and did not surrender to a
court. The BBC reports that punishment for the offense can be up to a year
in prison or a fine.
"The Metropolitan police service [MPS] is obliged to execute that warrant
should he leave the embassy," a statement said. "Whilst Mr Assange was
wanted on a European arrest warrant (EAW) for an extremely serious offence,
the MPS response reflected the serious nature of that crime. 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. The MPS will provide a level of resourcing which is
proportionate to that offence."
Assange wants to start a dialogue with British authorities to determine his
legal status in the United Kingdom and in the United States, another place
where authorities want to arrest him
(http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/press_freedoms_us_seeks_arrest_wikilea
ks_founder_julian_assange_20170421) .
The Ecuadorean government wants Britain to promise not to arrest Assange and
to guarantee his safety.
The BBC reports (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39979343) :
[Ecuadorean] Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said that the UK should now
grant Mr Assange safe passage, as the European arrest warrant against him
"no longer holds".
"Ecuador welcomes the decision to drop the charges," Mr Long added, quoted
by AFP [Agence France-Presse], while criticizing the time it took Sweden to
send an investigator to London to interview Mr Assange.
"Ecuador regrets that it took Swedish prosecutor more than four years to
carry out this interview. This was a wholly unnecessary delay."
Earlier a source at the ministry told the Press Association that Ecuador had
"fully co-operated with the Swedish justice system".
The source added that Ecuador would now intensify its diplomatic efforts
with the UK so that Julian Assange could "enjoy his asylum in Ecuador".
Leaving the Ecuadorean Embassy remains unsafe for Assange until the U.K.
provides assurances that he won't be extradited to the U.S. In April,
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that arresting Assange was a priority
(https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/21/arresting-julian-assange-is-a
-priority-says-us-attorney-general-jeff-sessions) for the U.S. government,
even though Donald Trump said "I love WikiLeaks" at a rally during the
presidential campaign.
The CIA also considers Assange a threat
(https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2017-speeches-testi
mony/pompeo-delivers-remarks-at-csis.html) . "It's time to call out
WikiLeaks for what it really is: a non-state hostile intelligence service
often abetted by state actors like Russia," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said
during an April 13 public talk
(https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2017-speeches-testi
mony/pompeo-delivers-remarks-at-csis.html) at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
VOTE: Is WikiLeaks an Ethical News Source or 'Hostile Intelligence Service'?
(http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/is_wikileaks_an_ethical_news_source_or
_hostile_intelligence_service_2017041)
Through WikiLeaks, Assange has released hundreds of thousands of classified
U.S. documents. The materials have exposed possible U.S. war crimes, CIA
spying techniques, and corruption of politicians
(http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_the_wikileaks_revelations_reveal_a
bout_donna_brazile_and_the_dnc_20161) and institutions including the
Democratic Party
(http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wikileaks_podesta_emails_reveal_the_pow
er_behind_the_clinton_campaign_) , along with making other disclosures.
WATCH: Julian Assange Accuses Democrats of McCarthyism, Maintains Russia Was
Not WikiLeaks' Source
(http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/assange_maintains_russia_was_not_wikil
eaks_source_20170410)
In February 2016, a United Nations panel found that Assange had been
"arbitrarily detained
(http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/europe/julian-assange-ruling/index.html) " by
the Swedish and U.K. governments since 2010. The U.N. Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention at the time recommended "remedies such as release from
detention and compensation."
Assange made a public statement
(https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2017/may/19/julian-assange-rape-inqu
iry-dropped-live) from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy on Friday.
"The proper war is just commencing," he said. "The U.K. says it will arrest
me regardless."
</p><p>
Below is a video from a 2016 panel with Democracy Now! anchor Amy Goodman
(pictured at left), Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges, WikiLeaks lawyer
Margaret Ratner, Assange lawyer Carey Shenkman and journalist Jeremy
Scahill. The discussion dealt with Assange and the importance of
whistleblowing, and the WikiLeaks founder made an appearance at the end
through a video feed.
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