Swedish authorities announced Monday that a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be reopened.
Eva-Marie Persson, the country’s deputy director of public prosecutions, said that in her view “there is still probable cause to accuse Mr. Assange of rape.” Assange, 47, is currently in jail in the U.K., where he is serving a 12-month sentence for skipping bail in 2012, when he was fighting extradition to Sweden in connection with the same case. Persson said Sweden will issue a European arrest warrant and request that Assange is brought to Stockholm for trial after he has served his British prison sentence.
Assange was arrested by police and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he sheltered for almost seven years, on April 11. The U.S. also is seeking the extradition of Assange so he can face charges relating to the release of hundreds of thousands of classified military documents provided by former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning.
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