Swedish prosecutors issue fresh request to British police to extradite the WikiLeaks founder over sex offence allegations
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
The net was closing on Julian Assange tonight after Swedish prosecutors issued a fresh request to British police to extradite the WikiLeaks founder.
Swedish authorities, who want to question Assange over sex offence allegations, issued a new warrant for his arrest. Mistakes in the original European arrest warrant sent by Swedish prosecutors to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) last month had prevented any move to apprehend the Australian.
Although British police know Assange's whereabouts, understood to be in the south-east of England, his lawyer said that by this afternoon there had been no attempt to contact him.
Mark Stephens said: "The police have given us an undertaking that they will contact us if they want to get in touch with Julian. At this point in time nobody has."
Assange is wanted in Sweden over allegations including sexual molestation, suspicion of rape and unlawful coercion, although no charges have been laid.
The former computer hacker denies the allegations and has vowed to fight them in court, saying they are part of a smear campaign against him.
Stephens said his client was trapped in a bizarre situation where he had attempted to arrange a meeting with the Swedish prosecutor, but had been rebuffed.
Assange appeared in defiant mood today, answering Guardian readers' questions in an online Q&A session.
He said he was aware that death threats had been made against him following the publication of 250,000 US diplomatic cables on his website.
"We are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower," he said.
He added that the leaked cables, along with "significant material from the US and other countries", had been copied to more than 100,000 people in encrypted form. "If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically," he said.
On yesterday, Sweden's highest court refused Assange permission to appeal against the European arrest order.
According to Swedish police, Soca requested a new warrant because the original listed only the maximum penalty for the most serious crime alleged, rather than for all of the crimes.
The warrant will be checked by Soca officials and passed to local police, who will serve it on Assange.
Scotland Yard refused to discuss whether officers from its extradition unit were preparing to arrest the Wiki- Leaks founder.
The warrant, which is valid in all EU member states, requires the receiving member state to arrest and extradite the suspect within 90 days of arrest, or within 10 days if the arrested person consents to surrender. The warrant can only be issued for offences carrying a maximum penalty of 12 months or more.
The allegations surfaced in August after two women in Sweden made complaints to police.
WikiLeaks was forced to switch to a Swiss web address yesterday after the American company providing its domain name cut off service because cyber attacks were threatening the rest of its network.
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