Swedish prosecutors were yesterday set to drop a sexual assault probe against Julian Assange when the case reaches its expiration date without investigators having succeeded in questioning the WikiLeaks frontman.
Two of the four allegations against Assange — who has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition — are reaching their statute of limitations after five years.
The accusations involve one count of sexual assault and another of unlawful coercion. A separate allegation of sexual molestation will run out on Tuesday next week.
However, Assange can still be prosecuted for the more serious claim of rape, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations and expires in 2020.
The 44-year-old Australian denies the allegations against him, brought by two Swedish women, and insists the sexual encounters were consensual.
Under Swedish law, if a suspect is not questioned before the deadline expires, they can no longer be tried for the alleged crimes.
Despite repeated attempts, prosecutors have been unable to gain access to Ecuador’s embassy.
They initially insisted Assange return to Sweden for interrogation — a condition he rejected on fears Stockholm could deliver him to US authorities, who may try him for leaking nearly 750,000 classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.
In a U-turn in March, prosecutors agreed to Assange’s compromise offer to question him inside the London mission, but say they have yet to see their request approved by Ecuador because of procedural issues — leading critics to suspect Quito of playing the clock.
However, lawyers for Assange say suspicions that Ecuador is using delaying tactics are unfounded.
“The [Swedish] request came in late and is being processed by Ecuador, which will certainly approve it after following its own procedures,” Assange’s Swedish lawyer Per Samuelsson said earlier this month.
Claes Borgstrom, a lawyer for one of the two women accusing Assange of having assaulted them in 2010, said his client was trying to come to terms with the likelihood that the case will never be tried.
“She has always been ready to stand by her accusations and wanted to bring the case to court, but at the same time a weight has been lifted. This has been dragging on for five years and she wants to go back to her normal life,” he told the daily Dagens Nyheter.
Assange has compared living inside the embassy — which has no garden, but is in the plush Knightsbridge district — to life on a space station.
His 14.6m by 4m room is divided into an office and a living area. He has a treadmill, shower, microwave and sun lamp and spends most of his day at his computer.
He is subject to a European arrest warrant and Britain has vowed to detain him if he sets foot outside the embassy, which is under constant police surveillance.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in