© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
The newspaper reports Swedish prosecutors were keen to drop the proceedings against the WikiLeaks founder in 2013, four years before they officially did in 2017. During the exchange between the Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, and an unnamed, since retired, CPS lawyer in charge of the case, Ny said that:
"There is a demand in Swedish law for coercive measures to be proportionate. The time passing, the costs and how severe the crime is to be taken into account together with the intrusion or detriment to the suspect. Against this background, we have found us to be obliged to lift the detention order ... and to withdraw the European arrest warrant. If so this should be done in a couple of weeks. This would affect not only us but you too in a significant way," Ny added.In response, the CPS lawyer said:
"I do not consider costs are a relevant factor in this matter." Up until that point, the cost of preventing Assange from leaving the shelter of the Ecuadorian embassy in London was £3.8 million (US$5.25 million). "All we can do is wait and see (and perhaps be eternally grateful that neither of us have to share a room in the embassy with him over Christmas!)," he added.
Comment: See also: UK prosecutors confess to destroying key emails in Julian Assange case