A Swedish prosecutor announced Tuesday that her office is ending a years-long investigation into a 2010 rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently being held in a British prison as he battles the U.S. government’s effort to extradite him.

“Now that the U.S. does seek Mr. Assange’s extradition to stand trial on unprecedented charges for journalistic work, it continues to be a matter of extreme regret that this reality was never acknowledged and that in turn a process in Sweden, with which Mr. Assange has always expressed his willingness to engage and indeed did so, became so exceptionally politicized itself.”
—WikiLeaks Defense Fund

In a statement, Swedish deputy director of public prosecutions Eva-Marie Persson explained the decision to end the investigation.

“I would like to emphasize that the injured party has submitted a credible and reliable version of events,” Persson said. “Her statements have been coherent, extensive, and detailed; however, my overall assessment is that the evidential situation has been weakened to such an extent that that there is no longer any reason to continue the investigation.”

Persson, who pointed to the long period of time that has elapsed since the allegation as the reason for weakened evidence, told Agence France-Presse that she “determined that it cannot be proven that a crime has been committed. But it would be totally wrong of me to say that it is the plaintiff’s fault.”

The Local Sweden reported that “in September, prosecutors said they had interviewed seven witnesses over the summer in a bid to move the inquiry forward. The statute of limitations in the case was to expire in August 2020.”

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, told AFP in response to Persson’s announcement that her client will consider whether to appeal the decision to discontinue to case.

“I, and all of the prosecutors who have worked on this case, have always considered the plaintiff credible and reliable. As is the case today. The plaintiff stands by her strong account,” said Massi Fritz. “After today’s decision my client needs time to process everything that has happened over these nine years in order to be able to move on with her life.”

Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for Assange in 2010, the same year that WikiLeaks began publishing hundreds of thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. In 2012, the Australian publisher and activist—who has denied the rape allegation—was granted political asylum by Ecuador and took up residence in the country’s embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden.

The WikiLeaks Defense Fund said in a statement Tuesday that from the start of the Swedish investigation, “Assange’s expressed concern has been that waiting in the wings was a United States request that would be unstoppable from Sweden and result in his spending the rest of his life in a U.S. prison.”