Sweden drops Assange rape investigation
UK police say he still faces arrest
Swedish prosecutors yesterday dropped an investigation on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a rape allegation, but British police said he would still be arrested if he left the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been holed up for nearly five years.
Assange, 45, took refuge in the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over the rape allegation, which he denies.
He feared Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in US history.
Swedish Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said the investigation had not been able to proceed because of legal obstacles.
"We are not making a statement about his guilt," Ny said.