Sweden Discontinues Assange Rape Investigation

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The alleged rape investigation involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently in prison in Britain, has been discontinued, a Swedish prosecutor said Tuesday.

“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.”

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 U.S., which accuses him of publishing secret documents.