WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks at a news conference at the Frontline Club in central London (File)
Swedish prosecutors have withdrawn an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying the rape suspicions against him are unfounded.
In a brief statement Saturday, chief prosecutor Eva Finne says: "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
Assange, whose whistle-blowing website caused uproar last month with a leak of secret U.S. military files on Afghanistan, was previously wanted in Sweden on charges of rape and molestation, the National Prosecutor's Office said on Saturday.
ssange, whose whereabouts are unclear, denied the allegations on WikiLeaks' Twitter page.
"The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing".
The 39-year-old Australian was in Sweden last week partly to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistle-blowers.
He also spoke at a seminar hosted by the Christian faction of the opposition Social Democratic party and announced he would write bimonthly columns for a left-wing Swedish newspaper.
"We can confirm that he's wanted. He was charged last night -- the allegation is suspected rape," said Karin Rosander, Director of Communications at the National Prosecutor's office.
"One is rape and one is molestation," she said, without giving details.
WikiLeaks response
WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter that it has not been contacted by police.
"We were warned to expect "dirty tricks". Now we have the first one," WikiLeaks, whose page has more than 100,000 followers, tweeted.
According to the Swedish daily Expressen, Assange is also wanted for assaulting a woman.
"Expressen is a tabloid; No one here has been contacted by Swedish police. Needless to say this will prove hugely distracting," said another tweet.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, a colleague of Assange's who spoke from Iceland, said that the charges against him were false.
"He didn't know of the charges until he read them in the right wing tabloid Expressen this morning", Hrafnsson said.
"There are powerful organizations who want to do harm to WikiLeaks."
Hrafnsson said Assange was still in Sweden and would "go to the police very quickly."
U.S. officials have called the leak, including more than 70,000 documents detailing the war in Afghanistan, one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. military history.
WikiLeaks promotes the leaking of information to fight government and corporate corruption. Earlier this year, it leaked a classified video showing a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.
The Pentagon said this month it would be the "height of irresponsibility" if WikiLeaks went through with a new threat to publish outstanding documents it had on the Afghan war.
It wants the site to expunge all classified material from the Internet and return the material it had to the U.S. government
WikiLeaks plans to release a new batch of 15,000 documents from the Afghan war within weeks.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/21/117223.html
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