Julian Assange rape case: Swedish prosecutors reopen investigation into WikiLeaks founder
Swedish prosecutors will re-open a 2010 rape case against Julian Assange, the country’s deputy director of prosecutions has announced.
Eva-Marie Persson said at a press conference the inquiry, which was shelved in 2017 because Mr Assange was refusing to leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London, would be restarted.
One of the women who claim Mr Assange raped them called for the investigation to be picked up again after the WikiLeaks founder was evicted from the embassy and arrested by police last month.
The lawyer for one of Mr Assange’s alleged victims, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said after Mr Assange’s sudden expulsion from the embassy and arrest: “It did understandably come as a shock to my client that what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened.
“We are going to do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape. No rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served.”
Under Swedish law, prosecutors have until next year to re-open the investigation, until the statute of limitations kicks in in August 2020.
Mr Assange has consistently denied the allegations and insisted he only had consensual sex with the two women who came forward nine years ago.
It was while he was on bail fighting efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face the accusations Mr Assange fled to the embassy, where he lived for the next seven years.
Last month he was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail in 2012.
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