The Swedish Prosecution Authority, which has reopened the probe into sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is not going to appeal the recent court refusal to arrest the whistleblower in absentia, the body said on Thursday
STOCKHOLM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2019) The Swedish Prosecution Authority, which has reopened the probe into sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is not going to appeal the recent court refusal to arrest the whistleblower in absentia, the body said on Thursday."The Prosecution Authority has no intention of appealing the decision of the Uppsala court to not arrest Julian Assange in absentia," the body said in a statement.
The appeal deadline expires on June 24. Sweden will not be able to demand Assange's extradition from the United Kingdom, where he is currently serving a prison term, without the arrest warrant.
"The current work will be aimed at assessing the evidence in the case and carrying out additional interviews," Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Eva-Marie Persson was quoted as saying in the statement.
Assange has been sent to a London jail for violating his bail conditions in 2012, when he took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. The whistleblower was arrested in April after Ecuador deprived him of his asylum protection.
The sexual charges against Assange in Sweden were initially dropped a few years back, but the case was reopened after the WikiLeaks founder's arrest.
Assange is currently facing extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for the 2010 leaks of classified government data and has already been indicted on charges bearing an up to 175-year prison term.
