Sweden prosecutors reopen Julian Assange rape probe, seek extradition – By Kim Hjelmgaard (USA Today) / May 13 2019
Prosecutors in Sweden reopened a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a month after he was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and after a U.S. extradition request over computer hacking charges.
The decision complicates U.S. efforts to try Assange for leaking classified documents.
A sexual assault investigation into Assange was dropped two years ago because prosecutors were not able to continue their case while he was holed up in the embassy. It was reopened Monday at the request of one of the alleged victims.
Prosecutors in Sweden also renewed an extradition request for Assange, raising a competing claim to the U.S.’s. And it is not clear which extradition request will take priority, said Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden’s deputy director of public prosecutions, during a news conference in the country’s capital, Stockholm.
Anand Doobay, a London-based lawyer who specializes in extradition law, said that the decision will be decided in court and that it could take months if not years and may ultimately reside with Britain’s secretary of state.
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One of the factors that would be considered is if the U.S.’s request is politically motivated and whether Assange would face the death penalty or be charged with additional crimes related to his publication of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets.
The stolen material, according to the U.S. Justice Department, includes 90,000 war reports related to Afghanistan, 400,000 from the Iraq War, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments and 250,000 State Department cables.
Assange maintains it was in the public interest to publish them because they reveal the behavior of the U.S. government and how it operates in foreign military adventures.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks to reporters on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, on May 19 May 2017. (Photo: EPA-EFE)
Assange was arrested last month inside the Ecuador’s Embassy after the South American country revoked his political asylum. He sought asylum in the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. At the time, Assange’s legal team believed that if he were extradited to Sweden he would subsequently be extradited to the U.S. A case of alleged sexual misconduct was dropped when the statute of limitations expired.
The Australian national, 47, has already started serving a 50-week sentence in a British prison for skipping bail se and seeking refuge in Ecuador’s Embassy.
“There are significant legal obstacles for the U.S. case,” said Daniela Nadj, a professor of law at Queen Mary, University of London, adding that “many questions need to be answered.” Among them: If Sweden decides to renew its extradition claim whether a rape allegation should take precedence over a hacking one.
The U.S. extradition hearing began in a London court on May 2.
