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Swedish prosecutor has decided to discontinue the investigation against Julian Assange, who has been accused of sex crimes in Sweden. If this means that Julian is free to leave the embassy to go to Ecuador or not remains to be seen.
takyon: It does not mean that Assange is free to leave the embassy at this time, although his lawyer is asking for an arrest warrant to be dropped:
The London Metropolitan Police, however, made it clear in a statement that there is an outstanding arrest warrant for Assange. "Westminster Magistrates' Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012. The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy," it read.
The maximum penalty for breaching bail is up to a year in prison or a fine.
The police also recognized that Assange is now "wanted for a much less serious offense" and said they would "provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offense."
It remains unclear whether there is a standing U.S. extradition order for Assange. The policy of Britain's Home Office is to neither confirm nor deny extradition orders until such time as a person has been arrested in relation to an order. Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was stepping up efforts to arrest Assange as part of a broader fight against those who leak secrets into the public domain.
Also at BBC and The Guardian.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Friday May 19 2017, @10:38PM
So much vitriol.
What did assange do against Manning? Its more like what he didn't do. You're deluded if you think he had influence over Manning's treatment in the US. I think he knew he couldn't influence the US govt so he just kept doing his work.
Agree he is a bit of a media hoe but that's no reason to go on like he's the most evil human ever.
Wikileaks continue to do good work and he is part of that.
My view is that he deserves to be pissed that he's had to spend 7 years in the embassy due to a very dubious case against him with even more dubious actions by nations to detain him.