Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

Post by jaboutboul » Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:28 AM UTC

Post by tontonius » Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:28 AM UTC

Post by sschueller » Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:29 AM UTC

tontonius wrote: post #4

According to his Swedish defence lawyer Per E Samuelson, Assange sent a text immediately after being noticed: "Seriously? Oh my god!" Question kind of still remains: how "free" is he now?

Post by coldtea » Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:30 AM UTC

tray5 wrote: post #3

Anyone know why they dropped it?

  "*The woman of whom Mr. Assange is accused of the offence 
  of "lesser rape" (a technical term in Swedish law) sent an 
  SMS to a friend saying that she "did not want to accuse JA 
  [of] anything" and "it was the police who made up the 
  charges". The other woman tweeted in 2013 that she had 
  never been raped. Both women’s testimonies say that they 
  consented to the sex. A senior prosecutor already dismissed 
  the ’rape’ accusation, saying that there were no grounds 
  for accusing Mr. Assange on this basis. But a third 
  prosecutor, lobbied by a politician who was running for 
  attorney general, took over the investigation and 
  resurrected the accusations against Mr. Assange.* [1]"

Post by tray5 » Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:32 AM UTC

tontonius wrote: post #7

tray5 wrote: post #3

Anyone know why they dropped it?

Director of Public Prosecutions, Marianne Ny, will hold a press conference at 12:00 CET. EDIT: Marianne Ny has been a subject of heavy criticism in Sweden for her handling of the Assange case (primarily for refusing to take his statement remotely, and claiming his fears for extradition to nothing more than conspiracy theories).