Assange’s defense team said it welcomed the development, which it said “comes after six years of complete inaction on the part of the Swedish prosecutor”, the AP reported.
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Julian Assange is set to be quizzed by Swedish police over sexual assault allegations four years after entering the Ecuadorean embassy under political asylum.
“In the coming weeks a date will be established for the proceedings to be held at the embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom”, a statement issued in Ecuador to the “Guardian” said. The date of questioning has not yet been announced, but it will be in regards to an alleged rape Assange committed in Stockholm in 2010.
“Assange is anxious that if he returns to Sweden for questioning, the government there will extradite him to America to be prosecuted for leaking secret US government documents”.
Assange, 44, has been living in Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 over fears of extradition to Sweden and ultimately political persecution in the United States due to his organization’s leaking of diplomatic cables.
The Wikileaks founder exhausted all his legal options in Britain to resist extradition to Sweden, and subsequently sought refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London as a last resort in June 2012.
As Frank reports, Assange has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing regarding the Swedish allegations.
In line with this position, Ecuador proposed to Sweden the negotiation of an agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, which was signed last December and which provides the legal framework for the questioning, the statement said. “This is decisive to be able to take a decision whether to formally charge him or not”.
Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said Sweden handed over a formal request to interview Assange in January, and a reminder in June, and received Ecuador’s reply on Tuesday.
Julian Assange has been in the embassy for so long that the statute of limitations expired for some of the allegations facing him have expired. But Assange and his supporters have expressed fear that from Sweden, he could be transferred to the U.S.to face charges under the country’s Espionage Act.
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The British and Swedish governments have rejected the non-binding findings of the U.N’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
