Mr Assange denies the rape allegation and has challenged the detention order several times.
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Per Samuelson, a Swedish lawyer representing Assange, said he had not yet talked to his client.
Swedish prosecutors said Wednesday they have received notice from Ecuador that an Ecuadorian prosecutor will question Assange on October 17.
The appeals court said that after reviewing material in the case, it had found no new information and therefore “no reason to set aside the detention order”. Under the Swedish statute of limitations, this allegation would expire in 2020, and Assange has appeared content to wait things out. However it also noted this was unlikely to occur without Assange being arrested by United Kingdom authorities which have promised to apprehend him should he leave Ecuadorian soil.
PEOPLE loading items into a white truck outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London has fuelled speculation Wikileaks founder Australian Julian Assange could be on the move.
Julian Assange addresses the media on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
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 judges will decide whether to grant Assange’s request to hear legal arguments on the European arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors in 2010.
The ruling prolongs the six-year legal stand off between Assange and Swedish authorities.
Assange has been granted political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London as he fights extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault allegations.
It said that his “mental health is highly likely to deteriorate over time if he remains in his current situation”.
Instead, the Swedish prosecutors will provide their questions in writing and an Ecuadorian prosecutor will conduct the questioning. Fearing that Sweden could send him to the United States to face investigation over USA diplomatic cables and other documents published on WikiLeaks, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy.
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“It is a matter of considerable concern for them that the court declined to apply the UN Working Group’s finding that Mr Assange is in fact detained at present, and that this detention is illegal”, she said.
