Conspiracy theories and Swedish juridical system
First the normal disclaimers, Im not a lawyer or anything close to it, I just have some general knowledge about the Swedish juridical system, some of which may be misunderstandings (I do however live in Sweden). I just post a little information on how things work in Sweden here to try to clear away some misunderstandings that people might have (you have to have some knowledge to build a good conspiracy theory).
Politicians trying to influence a juridical process is a big no here (it is against the law) and attempts to do so generally result in the press attacking the politician in question like starved wolves. Swedish politicians are in general very careful to even comment on an ongoing juridical process, even more so to put any kind of pressure on courts and prosecutors.
A prosecutor must by law investigate and follow up on leads that might be to the advantage of the suspect. There have of course been cases where prosecutors have ignored this.
A prosecutor should not bring a case before a court unless he/she thinks the court will find the suspect guilty, based on the evidence presented.
Swedish courts are pretty free to choose what counts as evidence, there is no law that forbids the court to accept evidence that was illegally obtained (the person obtaining evidence in an illegal manner risks being sentenced for any crime committed obtaining the evidence.). In general Swedish court want pretty solid evidence, especially in the higher courts (the first court (tingsrätten) can sometimes have very strange rulings).
Search warrants are issued by the prosecutor, courts are not involved. Police doesn't have to show an actual warrant the prosecutor just have to have made the decision that a property should be searched (there are of course law on when a prosecutor may do so).
While a court decides if someone should be kept locked up while investigations are ongoing the requirements for doing so are low and the prosecutor generally gets their way. While such decision have a time limit it can be extended pretty much infinite, there have been cases where people have been locked up more then a year without the prosecutor deciding if the person should be charged before the court. (Human rights organizations as well as lawyers in Sweden have been complaining about this).
There is no bail in Sweden, you get locked up or you don't, is you are suspect of a serious crime you usually get locked up (it has to have a possible prison sentence of at least one year I think).
Its not uncommon with hefty restrictions if you do get locked up waiting for the investigation to proceed, including not being allowed to read news, restrictions on communications etc. (including family etc).
Even if you get a not guilty sentence in court you can be charged again for the same crime if new evidence turns up.
In this case the prosecutor didn't think she would get Assange convicted on the evidence at hand and did see no reasonable means of gaining enough evidence to get Assange convicted and decided to close the case, as is expected by a Swedish prosecutor (note that if new evidence turns up a case can be reopened).
One should not that the Swedish law on rape changed between the time Assange presumably committed the action that made him suspected of rape and now. He would be tried against the old law if the case went to court. It is possible that if the new law been in action back then things would look different, or evidence might still not have been enough. (The new law basically states that unless there is a clear active consent then it is rape, the old law basically stated there had to be force or the victim had to be in a state where he/she couldn't say no (drugged, unconscious, drunk etc) in order for it to be rape).
Some of the fear Assange may or may not have had might be because you can get locked up without bail for a long time while the investigation is ongoing, if you are the slightest bit of paranoid this might be quite scary especially if you think there is a conspiracy to get you. Regardless if USA would ask Sweden to extradite Assange to the US he would probably been faced with being locked up/stay locked up until those proceedings where done.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
