Assange is wanted for questioning by Swedish police over a rape allegation stemming from his visit to the country in 2010.
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The 45-year-old has offered to be questioned inside the embassy but the Swedish prosecutors only recently agreed.
In this February 5, 2016, file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stands on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be questioned by Swedish prosecutors inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, potentially breaking a stalemate in an nearly five-year-long investigation into alleged sex crimes.
According to a statement released by Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, the Ecuadoran government has sent a letter to Swedish officials to arrange the “interrogation” with the Swedish prosecutor.
Ecuador has repeatedly called for Swedish prosecutors to hear Assange’s statements over the rape allegations in its London Embassy and has long reiterated its willingness to cooperate with the Swedish justice system. No date for the interview has been announced.
Ecuador’s officials are hashing out the details with Swedish officials and as of Thursday morning, haven’t set a date for an interview.
Those sexual assault allegations nearly got him extradited to Sweden in 2012, but after losing an appeal, he found asylum in London’s Ecuadorian embassy.
“Obviously, Mr. Assange welcomes it but it doesn’t cure the harm he suffered”, Taylor said.
She also expressed hope that the questioning would not be a “superficial” procedure, adding “that the prosecutor will do this to tick the boxes”.
The statute of limitations in the case expires in 2020.
The anti-secrecy campaigner, who denies the allegation, walked into Ecuador’s London embassy of his own free will four years ago, with Britain on the brink of sending him to Stockholm, and has not left since.
Fearing extradition to Sweden, where he has been accused of sexual assault, and from there to the United States where the founder of the whistleblowing website faces espionage charges for publishing classified documents, Assange has not been able to leave the grounds of the embassy for more than four years.
Assange has compared living inside the embassy – which has no garden but is in London’s plush Knightsbridge district, near Harrods department store – to life on a space station.
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“These proceedings.do not affect the recent opinions and recommendations of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the United Nations (opinion 54/2015), which found that Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained”. He has a treadmill, shower, microwave and sun lamp and spends most of his day at his computer. Both countries angrily disputed the group’s findings.
