WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be questioned on Nov. 14 by Swedish officials at London’s Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been sheltering since June 2012.
The questioning will be attended by prosecutor Ingrid Isgren as well as a Swedish police inspector, said Sweden’s public prosecutor’s office to Agence France-Presse. Assange welcomed the news and sees the interview as a “chance to clear his name,” his lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP.
The Australian sought refuge in the embassy at London’s Knightsbridge to avoid being deported to Sweden for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation and a separate sexual-assault investigation that has since been dropped after the five-year statute of limitations expired. He feared that once in Sweden, he would be extradited to the U.S. over WikiLeaks’ release of military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We have requested this interview repeatedly since 2010,” Samuelsson told AFP. “Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name. We hope the investigation will be closed then.”
[AFP]
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