At least one of the women who accused Julian Assange of raping her has asked for the charges to be resumed.
Now, Swedish prosecutors want to reinstate the case and UK authorities must extradite him to Sweden to face justice.
Assange is accused of penetrating one woman while she slept without a condom, in defiance of her previously expressed wishes.
In initial questioning, Assange's lawyer described the charges and presented a defence that he did not agree that having sex with a sleeping woman constituted rape. This is incorrect in Swedish and UK law, where the law is that you cannot consent to sex whilst you are asleep.
In another incident, Assange is alleged to have held a woman down against her will during a sexual encounter. A case of sexual assault and molestation had to be dropped because it reached the statute of limitations in 2015 whilst Assange was inaccessable, in the Equadorian Embassy.
Assange was arrested in the UK on 11th April 2019 for breaching bail conditions in relation to the rape and sexual assault investigation, after his seven year asylum in the Equadorian Embassy ended.
Swedish prosecutors have since said they are re-examining the case at the request of the alleged victim's lawyer. It was only dropped previously because Swedish prosecutors could not access Assange in order to charge him, whilst he was in the Equadorian Embassy. However there is now only a short time left before the statute of limitations runs out on the rape case.
He must be charged before August 2020. Sign now to demand justice for victims of rape!
