Assange still faces arrest after sweden drops rape probe
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange has had rape allegations against him shelved, but he still faces arrest if he sets foot outside his embassy refuge.
Swedish prosecutors yesterday “discontinued” a seven-year rape investigation into the Aussie hacker, 45. But his hopes of leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London, his home for the past five years, were dashed when Scotland Yard said he remained a wanted man. Mr Assange is still set to be arrested for skipping bail in the UK. Mr Assange tweeted a selfie expressing his joy and said from the embassy balcony: “We have today won an important victory, but the road is far from over. The proper war is just commencing. Today is an important victory for me and the UN human rights system. “But it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge, in prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight, seven years without charge while my children grew up without me. “That is not something that I can forgive, it is not something that I can forget.” Mr Assange, said to have at least two children, fought being sent to Sweden because he feared he would be extradited to America. US attorney general Jeff Sessions last month said arresting Mr Assange was a “priority” after Wikileaks’ exposure of classified military material. The UK government refused to confirm or deny receiving an extradition request from the US. Elisabeth Fritz, lawyer for Mr Assange’s alleged victim, said: “It is a scandal that a suspected rapist can disregard the judiciary and thus avoid trial.” Mr Assange denies raping the woman at a conference in Sweden in 2010. He was on bail when he walked into Ecuador’s embassy in Knightsbridge in June 2012 and applied for asylum. Police have spent more than €15million guarding the building since.