Sweden’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to revoke an arrest warrant regarding allegations of sexual assault.
The order was originally brought by Swedish prosecutors in 2010 following allegations Assange raped one woman and assaulted another. The 43-year-old has always denied the claims, insisting the encounters were consensual, reports Agence France-Presse.
“The supreme court notes that investigators have begun efforts to question Julian Assange in London. The supreme court finds no reason to lift the arrest warrant,” Sweden’s top court said in a statement.
Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 after he fled there in order to avoid extradition to Sweden. Assange believes that if Britain extradites him to answer the charges, Sweden would then extradite him to the U.S., where he faces an investigation and many years in prison over the release of thousands of top secret diplomatic cables in 2010.
[AFP]
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Write to Helen Regan at helen.regan@timeasia.com