WikiLeaks founder Assange absolved of rape charges

Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website that published thousands of secret US military reports from Afghanistan, described the criminal charges brought against him in Sweden as “deeply disturbing”.

Assange issued a statement on his website’s Twitter page today after Swedish prosecutors in Stockholm had said he has been arrested in absentia on suspicion of rape and molestation.

Sweden’s Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne in a statement on the Prosecution Authority website later said she “had come to the decision that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape. Considering that, he is no longer arrested in his absence”.

“The Swedish Prosecution Authority can confirm that Julian Assange has been arrested in absentia, but not yet apprehended,” the country’s prosecution office had said on its website earlier today. “The allegations are molesting and rape. He is arrested in absentia for risk of complicating the investigation.”

The charges in Sweden “are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing,” Assange, who started WikiLeaks in July 2007, said in a post on the Twitter Inc account.

Conceived as an electronic dead drop for confidential documents, WikiLeaks receives material that governments and businesses seek to keep secret and publishes them so that they remain in the public domain forever.