‘I NEITHER FORGIVE NOR FORGET’

WikiLeaks boss hails dropping of rape probe, but slams name ‘slandering’

London, May 19: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange voiced hope for “dialogue” with British and US authorities over his future on Friday after Swedish prosecutors dropped a long-running rape investigation against him.

“My legal staff have contacted the UK authorities and we hope to engage in a dialogue about what will be the best way forward,” Asange said at Ecuador’s embassy adding that he is equally “happy to engage” in dialogue with the US.

“Today is an important victory for me,” he said punching the air with his fist as he emerged onto the balcony of the embassy, where he hs been holed up for nearly five years to avoid extradition to Sweden.

But British police said that they would still arrest Assange if he tries to leave the embassy saying he had breached the terms of his bail by refusing to turn himself in when an arrest warrant was issued in 2012. Marianne Ny, Sweden’s director of public prosecution, said in a statement that the rape investigation was dropped because “there is no reason to believe that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable future”

Assange, for his part, said he would “not forgive nor forget” the prosecutors’ attempts to have him extradited, which he avoided by remaining in the Ecuadoran embassy. “Detained for seven years without charge by [sic] while my children grew up and my name was slandered. I do not forgive or forget,” he said on Twitter.

The accusation against Assange dates from August 2010, when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint. She accused him of having sex with her as she slept without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex. Assange has always denied the allegations, which he feared would lead to him being extradited to the US.