Julian Assange may be freed today
Foto: Kirsty Wigglesworth / TT
Stockholm District Court will decide on Wednesday whether the arrest warrant against Julian Assange should be dropped.
Published kl 09:02
Updated, kl 11:30
There will be a press conference today at 16:00 after the court's decision, held at the Stockholm County Police, with Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny.
The Wikileaks founder is wanted for questioning over alleged sex offenses in Sweden. He currently has diplomatic asylum in the Ecuador embassy in London, with British police waiting outside to enact the Swedish warrant and arrest him.
"It is unreasonable for this arrest warrant to continue, seeing as it has been going on so long and how much suffering it has caused Julian Assange," one of Assange's lawyers, Tomas Olsson, told Swedish Radio News.
Everything began almost four years ago. Two women, who had sex with Assange during a visit of his to Sweden, went to the police wanting to get Assange to take an HIV test.
Then, Assange became suspected by the police of, among other offences, rape.
He says that if he is held in custody by Sweden he may be the victim of extradition or rendition to the USA, in order to be tried there in relation to his work with Wikileaks revealing American secrets.
After losing his appeals against the Swedish arrest warrant Julian Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been living for the past two years.
His lawyers say his refugee status relates to potential US attempts to seize him, and is not a way of avoiding the Swedish warrant.
The question now is what will happen, in legal terms, if the district court chooses to no longer pursue the arrest warrant against Assange. If that does happen, the decision will most likely be appealed and the Appeals Court could rule on the already next week.
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=5915186
Foto: Kirsty Wigglesworth / TT
Stockholm District Court will decide on Wednesday whether the arrest warrant against Julian Assange should be dropped.
Published kl 09:02
Updated, kl 11:30
There will be a press conference today at 16:00 after the court's decision, held at the Stockholm County Police, with Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny.
The Wikileaks founder is wanted for questioning over alleged sex offenses in Sweden. He currently has diplomatic asylum in the Ecuador embassy in London, with British police waiting outside to enact the Swedish warrant and arrest him.
"It is unreasonable for this arrest warrant to continue, seeing as it has been going on so long and how much suffering it has caused Julian Assange," one of Assange's lawyers, Tomas Olsson, told Swedish Radio News.
Everything began almost four years ago. Two women, who had sex with Assange during a visit of his to Sweden, went to the police wanting to get Assange to take an HIV test.
Then, Assange became suspected by the police of, among other offences, rape.
He says that if he is held in custody by Sweden he may be the victim of extradition or rendition to the USA, in order to be tried there in relation to his work with Wikileaks revealing American secrets.
After losing his appeals against the Swedish arrest warrant Julian Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been living for the past two years.
His lawyers say his refugee status relates to potential US attempts to seize him, and is not a way of avoiding the Swedish warrant.
The question now is what will happen, in legal terms, if the district court chooses to no longer pursue the arrest warrant against Assange. If that does happen, the decision will most likely be appealed and the Appeals Court could rule on the already next week.
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=5915186
