In a statement released online Friday morning, Sweden’s director of public prosecutions Marianne Ny says authorities have moved to drop their investigation of the Australian WikiLeaks founder, revoking the Swedish arrest warrant against him. The Swedish prosecutor said in a statement: “Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape by Julian Assange.”

Assange posted this picture of him on his Twitter account just after the announcement. Six months ago, Swedish prosecutors travelled to London to interview the WikiLeaks founder, who has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden. The official WikiLeaks account — widely thought to be run by Assange himself — tweeted that the “focus now moves to the U.K.,” saying the U.K. had “refused to confirm or deny whether it has already received a U.S. extradition warrant for Julian Assange.”

While Sweden’s decision to drop the investigation against Assange will be a huge relief for him, he still runs the risk, should he leave the embassy in London, of extradition to the U.S. where he is wanted for questioning. However, Ny didn’t rule out the possibility of renewing the investigation, adding, “If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately.”

NPR‘s Frank Langfitt reports that Assange’s fear of extradition to Sweden would lead to him being extradited to the United States, “where he could face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic and military documents.”

British law enforcement made it clear that they would still take legal action regarding Assange should the need arise, and that the decision from Sweden does not affect other reasons for his potential arrest for a “less serious offense”

“Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on June 29, 2012,” Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Swedish prosecutors drop a seven-year sexual assault investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.