Sweden drops three cases against Assange

Assange said he has no intention of going to Sweden for fear of being extradited to the United States. File photo

Swedish prosecutors on Thursday said they had dropped investigations into allegations of sexual assault against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Assange, who escaped a Swedish arrest warrant by taking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012, is wanted on two allegations of sexual molestation and one of unlawful coercion which expire by August 18 unless he is formally charged. A fourth allegation of rape is valid until 2020.

The 44-year-old Australian, who has denied the allegations, said he has no intention of going to Sweden for fear of being extradited to the United States because of an ongoing investigation into WikiLeaks’ dissemination of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents.