WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish prosecutors still believe an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be upheld, they said on Thursday in reply to the Stockholm District Court that will decide whether to lift the warrant.

Lawyers for Assange asked the court in February to overturn the warrant, following a statement by a U.N. advisory panel that his stay in Ecuador’s London embassy amounts to “arbitrary detention”.

Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.

Sweden’s Supreme Court in May last year rejected a previous appeal to revoke the detention order.