LONDON — When Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, jumped bail and sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy five years ago to avoid a Swedish rape investigation, he was considered by many a hero of transparency, internet freedom and resistance to the secret state.

So when Sweden's prosecutors announced Friday that they were abandoning their attempt to extradite him, invalidating the warrant for his arrest, Assange proclaimed it a happy moment of vindication. "Today was an important victory," he said.

But Assange, 45, who became a persistent problem for the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign over leaks of classified and embarrassing documents, still faces enormous legal problems — which he also acknowledged.

He could be arrested in London for other reasons — and may possibly risk extradition to the United States — if he left the sanctuary of Ecuador's embassy. And his reputation is far different than when he entered it in 2012.

Assange is now seen by many, including some who once had admired him the most, as an accomplice of the Russian propagandists and Donald Trump supporters who had sought to malign Clinton.

His advocacy of disclosure has become intertwined with politically motivated leaks and stolen information technology, used by states and criminals alike.

And his assertion Friday that Sweden had cleared his name for a crime he has denied was disputed by Sweden's chief prosecutor, Marianne Ny.

Sweden was dropping the inquiry, Ny said, because she simply saw no way forward and "we don't make any statement of guilty or not."

Should Assange enter Sweden before August 2020, when the statute of limitations expires for the last remaining allegation, of minor rape, she said, the investigation could be reopened.

His Swedish accuser, through her attorney, decried the decision. "It is a scandal that a suspected rapist can escape justice and thereby avoid the courts," the attorney, Elisabeth Fritz, said in a statement to news agencies. "My client is shocked."