Sweden to decide whether to reopen Assange rape case

STOCKHOLM – Swedish prosecutors plan to say Monday whether they will reopen a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a month after he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions, is scheduled to hold a news conference in Stockholm. If Sweden relaunches the case, that could leave Britain deciding whether to extradite him to the Scandinavian country or the United States.

Swedish prosecutors filed preliminary charges against Assange after he visited the country in 2010.

Seven years later, a case of alleged sexual misconduct was dropped when the statute of limitations expired. That left a rape allegation, which couldn't be pursued while Assange was living at the embassy. The statute of limitations on that case expires in August 2020.