Assange asks Swedish court to overturn arrest warrant

LAWYERS for Julian Assange have asked a Swedish court to overturn an arrest warrant for the Wikileaks founder following a ruling by a United Nations panel that his stay in Ecuador’s London embassy amounts 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.

“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 yesterday.