A Swedish court has struck down a prosecutor’s request to detain Julian Assange in absentia over excellent rape allegations. The case was reopened after the WikiLeaks founder was hauled from London’s Ecuadorian embassy.
The court determined pre-trial detention for Assange wouldn’t be “proportionate,” stated Swedish Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Eva-Marie Persson at a press convention Monday, however added the investigation might nonetheless proceed with out it.
The ruling was handed down Monday by a choose in a court in Uppsala, north of Stockholm.
Swedish prosecutors reopened the rape case earlier this month, quickly after Assange was jailed for skipping a 2012 bail listening to. Assange requested Monday’s listening to be postponed, citing ailing well being, however the request was denied.
Detaining Assange in absence would have allowed Sweden to subject an arrest warrant on him, however for now the European warrant already issued can have to suffice for the investigators, the Swedish choose stated.
Assange was arrested in mid-April after spending over six years below political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
The United States launched 17 indictments in opposition to the WikiLeaks founder in late May, charging him below the WWI-era Espionage Act for his work with whistleblower Chelsea Manning. He faces a sentence of up to 170 years in jail if discovered responsible. The UK is at present reviewing extradition requests from each the US and Sweden, however has but to decide the place Assange will go after his 50-week jail sentence in Britain.
