WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a clenched fist salute on Friday after Swedish prosecutors dropped a seven-year rape allegation , but he insisted the “proper war” over his future was just beginning.
Mr. Assange stepped into the daylight on the balcony of Ecuador’s London embassy, where he has been holed up since 2012, to celebrate, but said the road was “far from over”.
The 45-year-old Australian’s accuser was angered by the decision and Mr. Assange declined to say whether he would leave the embassy.
British police could arrest him immediately for breaching earlier bail conditions if he left the building, while U.S. authorities have warned they regard WikiLeaks as a “hostile intelligence service”.
“Today is an important victory,” Mr. Assange, in a black shirt and jacket, told reporters and a small band of supporters crowded around the tiny balcony.
“But it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge. In prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight.
“That is not something that I can forgive. It is not something that I can forget.”
Uncertain future
Earlier in Stockholm, Marianne Ny, Sweden’s director of public prosecutions, said the rape investigation had been dropped because there was “no reason to believe that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable future”.
“It is no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assange in his absence,” she said.
Mr. Assange jumped British bail by entering the embassy and claiming asylum, saying he feared he would eventually be extradited to the United States.
U.S. justice authorities have never confirmed that they have Mr. Assange under investigation or are seeking his extradition.
But U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said in April 2017 that “we will seek to put some people in jail”, when asked if arresting Mr. Assange was a “priority” for Washington.
“The road is far from over. The war, the proper war is just commencing,” Mr. Assange said, noting his lawyers were in touch with British authorities and hoped to begin a dialogue about the “best way forward”.
Ecuador also urged Britain on Friday to let Mr. Assange leave.
“Ecuador will now be intensifying its diplomatic efforts with the UK so that Julian Assange can gain safe passage in order to enjoy his asylum in Ecuador,” the country’s Foreign Minister Guillaume Long wrote in a statement.
Mr. Assange’s Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelsson, said his client plans to move to Ecuador because “it’s the only nation where he is safe”.
The former computer hacker said that despite the “extremely threatening remarks” emanating from Washington, he was “always ready to engage with the Department of Justice”.
The department said on Friday it had no comment on Mr. Assange.
Asked if London would now support a request to extradite Mr. Assange to the United States, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: “We look at extradition requests on a case-by-case basis.”
In Australia, his mother Christine Assange urged the Canberra government to provide him with a new passport so he could leave Britain.
“His passport’s been confiscated, the Australian Government should immediately issue him another one and demand safe passage for him to take up legal asylum in Ecuador,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“For the U.K. now to continue to keep him in that embassy, when he’s uncharged and the warrant has expired is now breaching his human rights severely and is almost criminal,” she said.
Decision a ‘scandal’
In Sweden, Mr. Assange’s accuser was left stunned by the prosecutors’ decision.
“It is a scandal that a suspected rapist can escape justice and thereby avoid the courts,” her lawyer, Elisabeth Fritz, told AFP in an email.
“My client is shocked and no decision to (end the case) can make her change (her mind) that Assange exposed her to rape,” she said.
The accusation against Mr. Assange dates from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint.
She accused him of having sex with her — as she slept — without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex.
Mr. Assange always denied the allegations, which he feared would lead to him being extradited to face trial over the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. military and diplomatic documents in 2010, that brought WikiLeaks to prominence.
What next?
Prison time in Britain? A life in Ecuador? Extradition to the United States? Another five years in Ecuador’s London embassy? Mr. Assange’s future could now follow many different paths. Here are the main possible scenarios:
Fine
Mr. Assange leaves the embassy and is arrested, but moves quickly through the British courts process, before being given a minor fine. He is then free to go about his business and resume his WikiLeaks work more directly and publicly.
Jail term
Mr. Assange is arrested and held for months while his case progresses, before being given a prison sentence that could reach a maximum of one year.
Extradition to the U.S.
U.S. prosecutors have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks members that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, according to The Washington Post .
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has put heat on WikiLeaks after it embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency in March 2017 by releasing files and computer code from the spy agency’s top-secret hacking operations.
Extradition to Sweden
David Allen Green, a law commentator for The Financial Times , suggested that if Mr. Assange left the embassy and was arrested, Sweden could resume its case.
He said the case being dropped was “an administrative decision to stop expending resources” when there was “no clear path to extradition”.
“If Assange went into British custody then the Swedes may well revisit their decision on proportionality, as extradition suddenly easier,” he tweeted.
Safe passage to Ecuador
Ecuador has urged Britain to grant Mr. Assange “safe passage” out of the country. This possibility could take place only once the English legal system has finished with him for jumping bail.
Stay put
Mr. Assange stays right where he is, in the red-brick flat at 3 Hans Crescent, continuing his work with WikiLeaks.
His room, which measures 190 sq. feet, has a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill and a microwave, and he has a cat for company.
