(Newswire.net — August 13, 2015) — London, UK – Due to a Swedish statute of limitations, sexual assault allegations leveled against Julian Assange would expire next week. The WikiLeaks editor, granted asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy where he has lived since 2012, has never been questioned or charged.
The sexual allegations arose after WikiLeaks published some sensitive material about US military activity and spending, from anonymous sources, which became the news headlines. As he ran into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange was seen in the eyes of public as a hero defying the corrupt system.
To show that police were not pursuing him solely because of his leak activities, Sweden, which is an undisputed NATO ally, managed to dig up sexual assault allegations and began treating him as a fugitive.
Assange, the 44-year-old activist from Australia, continues to deny the allegations. Swedish prosecutors earlier refused to travel to London to meet with Assange at the hearing. However, since the process will legally expire within a week, the prosecutors have changed their minds.
Financial Times commentator and respected law blogger David Allen Green, reports that two allegations of sexual molestation and another of unlawful coercion will expire within next few days, on August 18th.
Reportedly, the sexual assault allegations come from a women identified only as AA, who claims that back in 2010, Assange tried to force her to sex without a condom.
If prosecutors fail to question Assange before the process expires, Assange will never be required to formally answer questions about what happened in August 2010 and will never be charged for the alleged offenses.
Although three out of four sexual allegations would expire, the one made by a woman known as SW, accusing Assange of rape, has a ten years expiration limit and would stay.
The WikiLeaks editor, however, believes the reasons behind the sexual assault and rape allegations are attempt to discredit him and his organization, and to set him up for extradition to the United States where he would face possible imprisonment.
According to Russia Today News, the British government has so far spent £12 million (US$18.6 million) on a round-the-clock police operation outside the Ecuadorian embassy, with officers ready to arrest Assange if he leaves the premises.