Assange 'to meet' UK police

WikiLeaks founder agrees to meet with British police following Swedish calls for his extradition, his lawyer says. Last Modified: 07 Dec 2010 05:47 GMT

Assange's lawyer said that they are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent [EPA] Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has arranged to meet with police in Britain who have received a request from Sweden for his extradition. Mark Stephens, Assanges' lawyer, told reporters on Monday in London that the Metropolitan police had called him to say they had received an arrest warrant from Sweden for Assange, who has been staying at an undisclosed location in Britain. "We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent," Stephens said, declining to say when Assange's interview with police would take place. Political stunt The 39-year-old Australian is accused of rape and sexual molestation in Sweden, and the case could lead to his extradition. He has denied the accusations, which Stephens has said stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex." The lawyer has said the Swedish investigation has turned into a "political stunt." Jennifer Robinson, Assange's London-based lawyer, said her client would likely resist being returned to Sweden for fear he could be turned over to the US where outrage is growing over the leak of documents. "[The Swedish prosecutor] said publicly on television last night that all she wants is his side of the story. Now we've offered that on numerous occasions. There is no need for him to return to Sweden to do that," she said. "I think he will get a fair hearing here in Britain but I think our, his, prospects if he were ever to be returned to the US, which is a real threat, of a fair trial, is, in my view, nigh on impossible," she told the Australian broadcaster ABC. On Tuesday, Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister, said that posting the US diplomatic correspondence on the web was "grossly irresponsible" and that the publication would not have been possible "if there had not been an illegal act undertaken" in the United States. Gillard had previously said that publishing the documents was an illegal act, without saying why. She said police were still investigating whether Assange had broken any Australian laws. The pressure on WikiLeaks increased as the Swiss authorities closed Assange's bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. WikiLeaks struggled to stay online despite more hacker attacks and resistance from world governments, receiving help from computer-savvy advocates who have set up hundreds of "mirrors", or carbon-copy websites around the world. In one of its most sensitive disclosures yet, WikiLeaks released on Sunday a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the US considers critical to its security. The locations include undersea communications lines, mines, food suppliers, manufacturers of weapons components, and vaccine factories. Damaging disclosure Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan called the disclosure damaging and said it gives valuable information to the nation's enemies. "This is one of many reasons why we believe WikiLeaks' actions are irresponsible and dangerous," Lapan said. WikiLeaks has been under intense international scrutiny over its disclosure of a mountain of classified US cables that have embarrassed Washington and other governments. US officials have been putting pressure on WikiLeaks and those who help it, and is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted under espionage law. In what Assange described as a last-ditch deterrent, WikiLeaks has warned that it has distributed a heavily encrypted version of some of its most important documents and that the information could be instantly made public if the staff were arrested.

Source: Agencies