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Sweden Ends Probe Against WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

Ecuador has been sheltering Assange at its embassy in London since 2012

By Dominic Chopping in Stockholm and Wiktor Szary in London
Updated May 19, 2017 6:39 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sweden-ends-probe-against-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-1495186736

Swedish prosecutors said Friday they have dropped a seven-year probe into alleged rape targeting Julian Assange, removing one of the reasons the WikiLeaks founder has cited for secluding himself inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London.

Sweden’s director of public prosecution, Marianne Ny, said the probe was dropped because there were no further measures available to take it forward, not because prosecutors had been able to make a full assessment of evidence. It would no longer be proportionate to maintain the European arrest warrant, she said.

The decision comes about six months after Mr. Assange was questioned by Swedish prosecutors at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London over allegations he raped a woman during a visit to Sweden in 2010. Mr. Assange denies the Swedish rape allegation and hasn’t been charged for it.

Mr. Assange has argued that the Swedish probe and Swedish authorities’ protracted efforts to bring him to Sweden for questioning were a prelude to an extradition to the U.S. to face charges for leaking thousands of classified government documents.

Despite Friday’s decision by Swedish prosecutors, Mr. Assange should seek further protection from Ecuador, according to his legal advisers.

“The reason he entered the embassy in the first place was the national security investigation in the U.S., and the administration in the U.S. has now upped the ante,” Melinda Taylor, a member of Mr. Assange’s legal team said. “[U.S. Attorney General] Jeff Sessions said the arrest warrant is a priority, so that risk is still there if not heightened.”

It isn’t clear whether the U.S. has requested Mr. Assange’s extradition from the U.K.

On its verified Twitter account, WikiLeaks tweeted: “Focus now moves to U.K.,” saying British authorities have refused to confirm or deny whether they have received a U.S. extradition warrant for Mr. Assange.

A statement from London’s Metropolitan Police said it would still be obliged to arrest Mr. Assange if he walked out of the embassy because there was an outstanding arrest warrant in his name from a court in London.

The latter warrant stems from Mr. Assange’s move in 2012 to jump bail and seek refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has remained.

However, the U.K. Home Office said that since the investigation had been dropped by the Swedish authorities, the European arrest warrant under which he was arrested would be withdrawn in the U.K. courts.

Long frozen, Sweden’s legal proceedings were revived in November, when Ecuador allowed a Swedish prosecutor to question Mr. Assange, only after Sweden agreed that an Ecuadorean prosecutor would put the questions to Mr. Assange provided by the Swedish side.

—Scott Patterson in London contributed to this article.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail] and Wiktor Szary at [e-mail]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sweden-ends-probe-against-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-1495186736