By Patrick Martin

November 19, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  A Swedish prosecutor announced Tuesday morning that her office was dropping its preliminary investigation into allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. It is the third time that Sweden has been compelled to shelve the investigation for lack of any evidence to support it, and confirms that the claims of “rape” or “sexual assault” by Assange are a politically motivated fraud.

The Swedish investigation has always been a stalking horse for the US government, which has sought to extradite Assange, either from Sweden or Britain, where he is currently jailed, in order to lock him up forever or execute him on charges under the 1917 Espionage Act, because of WikiLeaks’ publication of evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange was illegally dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London last April, after spending seven years inside, having been granted political asylum. At the time, the Swedish deputy director of public prosecutions, Eva-Marie Persson, reopened the investigation into claims—initiated by the police rather than the women involved—that Assange had been guilty of sexual assault in 2010.

Persson made the announcement that the investigation would be ended once it became clear that the British authorities would keep Assange locked up in Belmarsh Prison indefinitely, pending a decision on the US demand for his extradition. A court hearing is currently set for next February.

In 2013, when the Swedish authorities indicated they would drop the investigation, the British government interceded and pressured them not to do so, since the European Arrest Warrant for Assange—issued for questioning only, not laying any charges—had been the basis for seeking his detention.