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The WikiLeaks founder loses out in an appeal to revoke an arrest warrant
Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012
The Swedish Supreme Court has denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s latest appeal to dismiss an arrest warrant for allegations of sexual assault.
Assange has been holed up in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for more than two years to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about 2010 allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.
Although prosecutors have agreed to look into conducting interviews in London to move the investigation forward, the court sees “no reason” to lift the arrest warrant, Sweden’s Supreme Court said in a statement released on Monday.
In a previous appeal, Assange argued that the preliminary investigation has been open for an unacceptably long time, and that the arrest warrant improperly keeps him from going to Ecuador, which offered him asylum, or even from going outdoors.
The prosecutors previously balked at coming to Britain to question Assange, however, some of the alleged crimes will be subject to a statute of limitations in August this year, which has spurred Swedish authorities to change their approach.
READ: Julian Assange agrees to meet with Swedish prosecutors in UK
The Australian national has not been charged and denies the claims. Assange has said he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Dana Ford, Laura Smith-Spark and journalist Per Nyberg contributed to this report.
