WikiLeaks founder’s lawyers petition court after UN panel says his stay in Ecuador’s London embassy is ‘arbitrary detention’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Lawyers for Julian Assange have asked a Swedish court to overturn an arrest warrant for the WikiLeaks founder after a UN panel decided that his stay in Ecuador’s London embassy amounted to arbitrary detention.

Assange, 44, took refuge at the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.

He says the accusation is a ploy that would eventually lead to his extradition to the United States, where a criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks is still open.

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“We consider that there have arisen a number of new circumstances which mean there is reason to review the earlier decision,” Thomas Olsson, one of Assange’s lawyers, said on Monday.

A second lawyer representing Assange said he remained willing to be questioned in the Ecuadorian embassy, according to Sweden’s national news agency.

Ecuador has granted Assange asylum and he says his rights have been infringed because he is unable to travel to the South American country.

Both Britain and Sweden deny that Assange is being deprived of freedom and the Swedish prosecutor in charge of the case has said she will renew an application to interview Assange.

The prosecutor, Marianne Ny, said the UN working group on arbitrary detention’s non-binding finding had no impact on the case.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 90,000 secret documents on the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, followed by almost 400,000 US military reports detailing operations in Iraq. Those disclosures were followed by the release of millions of diplomatic cables dating back to 1973.

A US grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks is continuing.