WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
The prosecutor leading the trial in Sweden against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has stepped down while the lawyer for one of the women in Sweden accusing Assange of rape has been fired for speaking too much with the media.
Leading Swedish prosecutor Marianne Nye has unexpectedly stepped down from the case, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported, handing over the case to a junior colleague.
Reasons for Nye’s decision to step down have yet to be disclosed.
Nye reactivated the case against Assange in August 2010, just one week after Sweden’s chief prosecutor Eva Finné had declared the case a dead end.
Sweden’s Prosecution Authority wants to have Assange extradited in order to question him in relation to allegations he sexually assaulted two women.
Meanwhile, Claes Borgström, lawyer for one of the two women accusing Assange of sexual assault, has been fired for apparently speaking too much to the media.
Australian citizen Assange has been fighting extradition attempts to bring him back to Sweden to face the charges.
However, Assange and his supporters believe the charges to be trumped and are really a ruse to get him extradited to the US to face charges over the sensitive US military cables he published on WikiLeaks.
Assange is currently residing in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he cannot be arrested by UK police.
