Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, will likely never face charges for a number of sexual offences he is accused of, a lawyer representing one of his Swedish accusers has said.
Swedish officials want to question him about allegations made by two women relating to the freedom-of-information advocate but Assange has avoided extradition to Sweden by seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.
Assange has denied any involvement in the alleged crimes, which include rape, coercion, and sexual assault.
Prosecutors in Sweden has intended to travel to the UK in recent weeks in order to question the 43-year-old hacker, but have been denied access by officials at the Ecuadorian embassy.
But now one of the women accusing Assange has said that time is running out given some of the crimes will reach their statute of limitations in August – at which point it will be legally impossible for a case to be taken by prosecutors.
Speaking on Ekot, a news bulletin on Swedish radio, Claes Borgström, the lawyer representing one of the women, said that it seemed inevitable that the case would be dropped.
“If the statute of limitation comes into effect, and most things indicate that it will, the prosecutor will drop the investigation,” Mr Borgström said.
But if the investigation against Assange is dropped, he will not be leaving the Ecuadorian embassy, and the asylum that sovereign territory has afforded him, any time soon.
According to Swedish law, the statute of limitations in the ongoing investigations into Assange only relates to his alleged involvement in unlawful coercion and sexual assault. If evidence is strong enough to build a case against him, the Australian hacker could still be charged on suspicion of rape.
Five years in deadlock
For almost five years, Swedish prosecutors have requested that Assange travel to the Scandinavian country to answer questions relating to his alleged involvement in sex crimes. The hacker has refused to do so, claiming fears that he will be extradited to the US where an investigation into WikiLeaks’ release of nearly one million classified documents is ongoing.
In March, the prosecutors finally decided that they would be willing to travel to London to speak to Assange, but failed to obtain permission from the Ecuadorian embassy. Officials in Equador say the country is still considering the request “in the spirit of judicial cooperation” and will come to a decision based on international law and “Ecuadorian jurisdiction in the area of asylum rights”.
Assange has repeatedly offered to carry out video link interviews with Swedish prosecutors, and maintains he is innocent of all allegations levelled against him.
