Swedish Prosecutors Deciding Whether To Charge Wikileaks Founder With Molestation
Sep 1, 2010 5 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
[Updated at 11:47 a.m.] Swedish prosecutors will not rule Tuesday on charges against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, a prosecution representative said, reversing an earlier statement.
[Posted at 9:13 a.m.] Swedish prosecutors questioned Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, for about an hour Monday, his lawyer said Tuesday, following complaints against him from two women.
“He maintains that he is completely innocent,” his lawyer Leif Silbersky told CNN.
Prosecutors will decide Tuesday about charges against him, Gun Sjogren at the prosecution authority told CNN.
Assange was originally accused of rape by one woman and molestation by another, but Sweden’s chief prosecutor ruled earlier this month that Assange would not be charged with rape.
The lawyer for both women appealed, asking for the rape charge to be reinstated and the molestation charge to be upgraded to include a sexual component. Prosecutors will rule on both appeals Tuesday, Sjogren said.
Assange came to worldwide attention this summer when his website leaked tens of thousands of documents related to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
