Swedish prosecutors offer to question Assange in London
Prosecutors from Sweden, which is after Australian whistleblower Julian Assange over sex abuse allegations, have offered to question him in the British capital, London, his current whereabouts.
The prosecutors made the offer on Friday to travel to London for the questioning process. Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has been residing in the Ecuadorian embassy in the city (pictured below).
The 43-year-old, who denies the allegations, secured political asylum from Ecuadorian authorities after losing a legal battle against extradition to Sweden.
Assange’s extradition to Sweden is feared to enable his entrapment and transfer to the United States, where he is wanted over massive leakage of classified US documents.
The Australian journalist gained international prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables which embarrassed the US government. The website has also published hundreds of thousands of classified US documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecutors had previously refused to travel to London. Lead prosecutor Marianne Ny explained the change in position by saying some of the crimes Assange is accused of will reach their statute of limitations in August.
"My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorean embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future," Ny said in a statement.
"Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it, therefore, necessary to accept such deficiencies in the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward," the prosecutor added.
Lawyer: Be our guest
One of Assange's defense lawyers, Per Samuelson, welcomed the move and said Assange would likely accept the offer after reviewing it in detail. He said he had spoken to Assange early Friday.
"This is something we've demanded for over four years," Samuelson said. "Julian Assange wants to be interviewed so he can be exonerated. So of course we welcome this."
HN/NN/HMV
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