Sweden’s probe made it impossible for Assange to ‘defend himself’ – UN rapporteur to RT

The Swedish authorities made it impossible for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to cooperate with the rape investigation without the risk of being extradited to Washington, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer told RT.

There were discrepancies in the probe against Assange in Sweden such as the investigation being dropped in 2010 and re-opened almost immediately, Melzer told RT’s Afshin Rattansi on his show, Going Underground.

This case was closed by the prosecutor saying that there was no evidence that any crime has been committed at all … Then a few days later, a different prosecutor takes up this case again and issues an arrest warrant [on Assange].

Two women accused Julian Assange of rape, which he denies. The investigation was dropped for the second time in 2017 – only to be launched once again last month after the journalist was forcibly evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Melzer believes Sweden pursued the probe “in a way that didn’t allow Julian Assange to defend himself” without risking being extradited to the US where he may face up to 175 years in prison over charges of violating the Espionage Act.

Watch the full interview here:

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