“Today is an important victory for me and for the UN’S human rights system. But it by no means erases the years of detention without charge in prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight, seven years without charge while my children grew up without me. And that is not something I can forget, it is not something I can forgive.” Julian Assange — Wikileaks founder

Swedish prosecutors have revealed they’re dropping their case on Julian Assange but MET Police have warned him they’ll arrest him if he leaves Ecuadorian Embassy. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

On Friday (May 19 2017), Sweden said it had decided to drop the rape investigation. Thus, Ecuador now urges the UK to allow him safe passage out of the country.

What will happen to Mr Assange now?

However, police in London said they would still be obliged to arrest him if he left the Ecuadorean embassy, despite the Swedish prosecutors’ decision.

“Now that the situation has changed and the Swedish authorities have discontinued their investigation into that matter, Mr Assange remains wanted for a much less serious offence. The MPS will provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence.”

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said Mr Assange still faced the lesser charge of failing to surrender to a court, an offence punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine.

Why has the rape inquiry into Julian Assange been dropped?

Sweden’s director of prosecutions Marianne Ny said that the possibilities for investigating the allegations, which date from 2010, had been exhausted and that it was therefore necessary under Swedish law to discontinue the inquiry. But, she said, it could be reopened if Assange returns to Sweden before the statute of limitations ends in 2020. Another allegation of sexual assault made by a second Swedish woman was dropped by Swedish authorities in 2015 after the statute of limitations expired. The UK government said on Friday it had no involvement in Sweden’s decision to drop the investigation. [Guardian]

CIA Director Mike Pompeo: “WikiLeaks is a hostile intelligence service “

On April 13 2017, CIA Director Mike Pompeo delivered his first public speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Pompeo denounced WikiLeaks as a “hostile intelligence agency.”

“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations. It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is – a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.” “They have pretended that America’s First Amendment freedoms shield them from justice. They may have believed that, but they are wrong.” RELATED POST: CIA Director Mike Pompeo delivers first public speech at CSIS RELATED POST: CIA Director Mike Pompeo tells a whopper RELATED POST: CIA Richard Welch’s Assassination — Communiqué by the November 17 Revolutionary Organization

U.S. attorney’s office Going after Assange

According to officials familiar with the matter, the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia recently added a veteran prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trump, to the case.

James Trump — who is also assigned to the case against Edward Snowden — won a criminal conviction in 2015 against former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling.

Julian Assange: CIA director is waging war on truth-tellers

In an open letter published by the Washington Post, Assange wrote that the CIA director is waging war on truth-tellers.

“When the director of the CIA, an unelected public servant, publicly demonizes a publisher such as WikiLeaks as a “fraud,” “coward” and “enemy,” it puts all journalists on notice, or should. Pompeo’s next talking point, unsupported by fact, that WikiLeaks is a “non-state hostile intelligence service,” is a dagger aimed at Americans’ constitutional right to receive honest information about their government. This accusation mirrors attempts throughout history by bureaucrats seeking, and failing, to criminalize speech that reveals their own failings.” “Fundamental issues of free speech and freedom of the press, and of the interplay between liberty and security, date to the Republic’s founding. Those who believe in persecution and suppression of the truth to achieve their parochial ends are inevitably forgotten by history. In a fair fight, as John Milton observed, the truth always wins.”

Swedish prosecutors drop case on Julian Assange

REFERENCES

Julian Assange defiant as Sweden drops rape investigation — BBC

Julian Assange signals he will stay in Ecuadorian embassy — Guardian

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Julian Assange Case Dropped