Julian Assange says 'I do not forgive or forget' after five years stuck in Ecuadorian embassy

Wikileaks founder has spent almost five years in the Ecuadorean Embassy

Julian Assange said he did not "forgive or forget” after Swedish authorities dropped a rape charge against him.

Taking to Twitter, the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks, said: “Detained for seven years without charge by while my children grew up and my name was slandered.

“I do not forgive or forget.”

Swedish Director of Public Prosecutions Marianne Ny had earlier announced that his arrest warrant was being revoked because it was impossible to implement.

The rape allegation followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.

Mr Assange always denied the allegations against him, saying sex was consensual, maintaining that the case was politically motivated, as it followed massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

Later that year the 45-year-old was arrested in London after Sweden issued an international arrest warrant against him.

He spent the following months under house arrest in a small rural town in England.

Then, in June 2012, after exhausting legal avenues to prevent his extradition, Mr Assange sought political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, where he remains to this day.

Mr Assange is unlikely to be able to leave the embassy immediately.

Were he to try, Scotland Yard said it was obliged to execute a warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates' Court for the arrest of Mr Assange following his failure to surrender to the court in June 2012.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police ended the practice of stationing officers outside the embassy outside at all times, a practice estimated to have cost the taxpayer £12 million.

The Ecuadorian government has asked the United Kingdom to give Mr Assange safe passage in order to allow him asylum in the South American nation.

Prime Minister Theresa May said "any decision that is taken about UK action in relation to him (Mr Assange) would be an operational matter for the police".

However, US President Donald Trump said last month he would support any decision by the Justice Department to charge Mr Assange, in connection with the dumping of secret US government documents on Wikileaks.

Additional reporting by agencies.