Swedish prosecutors willing to quiz WikiLeaks' Assange in London
LONDON — Swedish prosecutors on Friday offered to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London over allegations related to sex crimes in a move that could clear the way for progress in an investigation into his alleged conduct that has dragged on for almost five years, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement.
The Australian national's extradition to Stockholm has been sought since 2010, but the statue of limitations on his alleged crimes, including rape, runs out in August. Assange has consistently denied the allegations.
Assange, who is believed to be in poor health from heart problems, has been under house arrest inside Ecuador's embassy in London for the past two years while his legal team has tried to engineer a route to the South American nation, which has granted him asylum.
"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," Marianne Ny, Sweden's director of public prosecutions, said in the 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," she said.
If Assange steps outside the embassy compound, he will immediately be arrested by British police who have agreed to extradite him to Sweden for questioning.
Much to the chagrin of some British taxpayers, police have spent millions of dollars securing the area around the Ecuadorian Embassy where Assange has been holed up since June 2012. There is even a website dedicated to tracking the cost of his containment.
Ecuador has said Assange can stay indefinitely in the embassy. He was granted asylum by Ecuador in the first place on reasonable fear of prosecution by the United States, which is pursuing a national security case against him.
While Assange has not been charged of any crime in Sweden, he is thought to fear traveling to Sweden because it opens up the possibility of subsequent extradition from Sweden to the United States, which wants to question him over WikiLeaks' involvement in Bradley Manning's — now Chelsea Manning — leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified documents. Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence.
Swedish prosecutors have consistently dismissed suggestions of U.S. involvement in the Swedish investigation, but the country has also not formally ruled out extradition.
Per Samuelson, a lawyer for Assange, told the Associated Press on Friday that the move by prosecutors was a positive one and that Assange would likely accept it.
"This is something we've demanded for over four years," he said. "Julian Assange wants to be interviewed so he can be exonerated. So of course we welcome this."