The
warrant for the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been
withdrawn, the Swedish Prosecution Authority has confirmed.
Chief
prosecutor Eva Finné in a statement explaining her decision said "I do
not consider there to be any reason to suspect that he has committed
rape."
The
statement was issued at 4.30pm on Saturday to confirm that Assange was
no longer a suspect and is thus no longer required to contact the
police.
"She
(Eva Finné) has adjudged that he is not suspected of rape. There is
thus no reason to retain a warrant for his arrest," Karin Rosander at
the Prosecution Authority confirmed.
A
source close to the case told the newspaper that two women in their
twenties went to the police in Stockholm on Friday to speak about their
recent encounters with Assange.
The
Prosecution Authority released a statement on Saturday morning in which
it revealed that the warrant was based on “one report of rape and one
report of molestation. A warrant has been issued for the person's arrest
since there is a risk that he could hamper the investigation.”
Kristinn
Hrafnsson, a colleague of Assange's who spoke to news agency AFP from
Iceland earlier on Saturday, rejected the charges against Assange as a
fabrication, but confirmed that Assange remained in Sweden and planned
to turn himself in.
There
has been widespread speculation in social media on Saturday that the
allegations were completely unfounded and had an ulterior motive, an
accusation that WikiLeaks, and comments attributed to them on Twitter,
have also helped to forward.
The WikiLeaks founder has also personally denied the accusations in an email to Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter.
“Why
these accusations are coming at this point in time is an interesting
question. I haven't been contacted by the police. The allegations are
false,” Julian Assange said.
WikiLeaks
chose to move its servers from the United States to Sweden in 2007 as
Assange believed the site would benefit from Swedish laws protecting
journalists' sources.
