A Swedish appeals court upheld the arrest warrant for Julian Assange on Friday over a rape accusation, prolonging the six year long legal standoff with prosecutors and clearing the way for the Wikileaks founder to be questioned in London next month.
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He’s now living in political asylum at the London-based Ecuadorian embassy and facing renewed scrutiny, and NBC News reports how a Swedish appeals court won’t drop a warrant for Assange on a 2010 rape allegation.
A court of appeal has blocked Julian Assange’s bid to have his case “set aside” and stated that he will be interviewed over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape.
Fearing that Sweden could send him to the United States of America to face investigation over U.S. diplomatic cables and other documents published on WikiLeaks, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy. “We talked for a few hours and when I hugged him to say goodbye, I could feel a very tense and big knot on his right shoulder”.
Assange’s Swedish defence lawyer, Per Samuelsson, said he would appeal the latest decision to the Supreme Court.
But it’s not the Swedish government Mr. Assange says he’s anxious about.
Julian Assange seems to be getting lonely being holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he’s been for five years.
Swedish court upholds arrest warrant for Assange was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 17, 2016 and was last updated on September 17, 2016.
In August, the Ecuadorian embassy accepted a request for Assange’s questioning to be held there. Acting on behalf of Swedish investigators, an Ecuadorean prosecutor is set to question Assange on October 17. ‘They ignore the risk that he will be extradited to the United States’.
Marianne Ny, the top prosecutor in the case, welcomed the court’s decision and said the interrogation with Assange would go ahead as planned.
“The reasons for detention therefore still outweigh the intrusion or other detriment that the measure entails for Julian Assange”, the court said.
Even if Sweden drops the investigation, Assange is likely to be arrested for breaching bail conditions in Britain.
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Julian Assange also indicated, after learning of the court’s decision, that he would be willing to serve time in a USA prison if President Obama would commute the sentence of former Army private Chelsea Manning, though he did state that any sentence he received would be unjust.
