WikiLeaks founder rape warrant appeal rejected

Julian Assange, WikiLeaksWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains wanted worldwide after a Swedish court rejected his appeal against an arrest warrant for rape. The warrant was issued for Assange, who heads the controversial whistleblower website, by a district court on November 18th.

“The Svea Court of Appeal has today decided to reject Julian Assange’s appeal against the Stockholm district court decision to remand him,” the court wrote in a statement on November 24th. The statement added that the appeals court had come to a different conclusion to the district court “in certain parts” of its ruling, but that “grounds for a remand order remained”.

Stockholm district court first ordered Assange to come in for questioning on “probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” in Sweden in August. An international arrest warrant was then prepared for the 39-year-old Australian, who is believed to be in Britain, by prosecutor Marianne Ny. Ms Ny claims that taking Assange into custody is the only way she can be sure of questioning him about allegations of sexually molesting one woman and raping another.

The WikiLeaks boss has strongly denied the charges, hinting that they could be part of a “smear campaign” against the contentious website. WikiLeaks has come under criticism from the Pentagon after publishing hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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