Stockholm: Swedish prosecutors defended their
handling of a rape allegation against the founder of
WikiLeaks, saying on Sunday that they had made no mistakes in
issuing an arrest warrant and withdrawing it less than a day
later.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said the short-lived
warrant had damaged his group nonetheless.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said an "on-call"
prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange late Friday
only to see it revoked the next day by a higher-ranked
prosecutor, who found no grounds to suspect him of rape.
"The prosecutor who took over the case yesterday had more
information, and that is why she made a different assessment
than the on-call prosecutor," said Karin Rosander, a
spokeswoman for the authority.
She declined to specify what the new material was, but
said there was "absolutely nothing" that suggested errors had
been made by either prosecutor.
Assange was in Sweden last week seeking legal protection
for the website, which angered the Obama administration by
publishing thousands of leaked documents about US military
activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WikiLeaks is preparing to release of a fresh batch of
classified US documents from the Afghan war, despite warnings
from the Pentagon that they could endanger American soldiers
and their Afghan helpers.
PTI
