Marianne Ny, the chief prosecutor in Sweden, made clear that the authorities were not pronouncing Mr. Assange innocent. “I can conclude, based on the evidence, that probable cause for this crime still exists,” she said at a news conference on Friday, which was a court-ordered deadline for prosecutors to respond on the case.
Ms. Ny said that proceeding with the case would require Mr. Assange to be served notice of the charges against him and for him to be present in a Swedish court, both of which were impossible.
As a result, prosecutors said they felt that they had no choice but to abandon the investigation because they had concluded that
Ecuador would not cooperate, and because all other possibilities had been exhausted. “My assessment is that the transfer cannot be executed in the foreseeable future,” Ms. Ny said.
The investigation could be reopened, she said, if Mr. Assange returned to Sweden before August 2020, the time limit for prosecution specified by the statute of limitations.