Having been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the last three years, Assange will no longer face the charges because three of the four claims against him have reached their five year expiry date under Sweden’s statute of limitations.
In 2010, Assange’s website, Wikileaks, published thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents and communications. The same year, a woman reported Assange to the police in Sweden, accusing him of violent sexual assault during his four day stay with her in Stockholm.
Assange, who had already arrived in the UK, feared he would be extradited to the US if he returned to Sweden to face the sexual assault charges and sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Knightsbridge where he has lived since 2012.
Policing the embassy round-the-clock in London has cost around $18milion (£12million).
And as the clock kept ticking on Julian Assange’s time in the Embassy, so did the time limit on three claims against him.
Five important facts of the Julian #Assange case. More: https://t.co/Mb6gXlz7QS pic.twitter.com/rCDoaGQwpx
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 12, 2015
Legal blogger Jack of Kent reports that under Sweden’s statute of limitations, a person must be charged within a five year window if they are to be prosecuted for alleged offences, which were reported as being 13th, 14th and 18th August 2010. So the chance for Swedish prosecutors to interview Assange about the claims will run out in a week.
A lawyer acting for the alleged victim said she felt "a sense injustice".
Claes Borgström told The Times: "On one hand she wants him…to answer the allegations, and of course to be convicted. But on the other hand she is relieved that she will not have to stand in court".
Mr Assange has always denied the allegations, has never been charged with any offence relating to the claims and fears any extradition to Sweden will lead him to face espionage charges in America.
Had Mr Assange left the Embassy, the British government would have arrested him on breach of bail and extradited him immediately.
In March, prosecutors in Sweden agreed to interview Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy – but were reportedly not given permission to do so by Ecuador.
A Wikileaks spokesperson told The Times: "It’s quite obvious that the Swedish authorities waited all these years. He doesn’t have to clear his name. He has been asking to be interviewed in London for five years – he has asked for this to be moved forward".
But the fourth claim of rape has a statute of limitations deadline of a decade giving prosecutors in Sweden a further five years to potentially charge Assange. So it appears Assange still isn’t going anytime soon and remains stuck in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, cleared of three charges of sexual assault, having never been interviewed or stood trial, but still accused of rape and wanted by the US authorities on espionage charges.
Assange has always maintained his innocence amid claims from his supporters that the women were set up as ‘honey traps’ to have him extradited to Sweden, so that he could be handed over to the US authorities.
