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In reply to the discussion: Assange will be refused safe passage even if Ecuador grants asylum - Foreign Office [View all]riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)exposed the Iraqi war crimes by the US. Mark Stephens, Assanges lead lawyer in London, has repeatedly said, without providing details, that a senior political figure worked to have the case reopened.
Assange stipulates that political interference in the case is confirmed by the decision of the Swedish prosecutors to drop the initial arrest warrant and to downgrade the investigation to one of molestation, a minor offense. Those decisions were reversed in late August when the chief state prosecutor, Marianne Ny, overruling a subordinate prosecutor in Stockholm, Eva Finne, restored the original allegations, saying that rape was the appropriate charge for the evidence on file with the prosecutors.
Furthermore, I've heard that at least one of the women has recanted.
Sweden's actions have certainly been highly suspicious and reek of a vendetta by the US. Their refusal to agree that they won't extradite Assange to the US if he returned to Sweden for questioning underscores (for me at least) that this isn't really about what happened in Sweden but is really about Wikileaks and the US.