August 22, 2010 by Trent Morgan
Just days after Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was wanted for arrest under a rape charge, news reports suggest that the accusation has been withdrawn. Swedish authorities issued a warrant for Assange’s arrest late last Friday, but have now withdrawn it, suggesting that the rape allegations did not have any basis.
The website for the Swedish Prosecution Authority issued a statement to say that the chief prosecutor had decided that Assange would not face rape charges. There was no further comment given at that point.
The Wikileaks site also issued a statement on Twitter to comment that the rape charges were false. The website commented “The allegation at this moment is deeply disturbing. No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police, and we have been warned to expect dirty tricks. We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind Wikileaks think highly of Julian and he has our full support”.
39 year-old Mr. Assange has not been available for comment since the charges were revealed. In a statement, the chief prosecutor Eva Finne admitted that there was no reason to think that he had committed rape, and that there would be no further comment.
According to Swedish officials, two separate allegations of molestation made against Assange, both incidents of which were alleged to have taken place in Sweden. The police are still investigating one count of molestation. Mr. Assange has been at the centre of some controversy recently, relating to the publication of Afghan war logs on Wikileaks. The site has recently issued over 75,000 secret military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan, coming under fire by US authorities who suggested that the move placed the lives of US soldiers and informers at risk.
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