WIKILEAKS: Assange’s lawyer tells Swedish court to drop arrest warrant

The lawyer representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has asked a Swedish court to drop the arrest warrant against his client who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.

Assange’s Lawyer cites statements by US officials calling for his clients arrest as grounds for the Swedish court to repeal detention order placed on the 45-year-old WikiLeaks founder.

The lawyer, Per Samuelson fears Sweden would in turn hand him over to the US to face prosecution over the publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents by WikiLeaks, in one of the largest information leaks in US history.

He said the US had now openly said it wants to arrest Assange.

“Given that the US is obviously hunting him now, he has to make use of his political asylum and it is Sweden’s duty to make sure that he has to stay in the embassy,” Samuelson said.

“If they rescind the detention order, there is a possibility he can go to Ecuador and then he can use political asylum in an entire country.”

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy for the past five years after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies.

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