Swedish prosecutor still aims to quiz Assange

A Swedish prosecutor said on Tuesday she still aims to question Wi-kiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuad-orian embassy in London over a rape allegation in Sweden, despite a UN report condemning Stock-holm for his “arbitrary detention”.

“Concerning the report that was issued last week, I would like to state that it does not change my earlier assessments in the investigation,” Marianne Ny said. She said she was “currently working on a renewed request to interview Mr Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in London”.

The Australian-born Mr Assange sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012 after Swedish authorities issued a European warrant for his arrest over a 2005 rape allegation.

Mr Assange has refused to travel to Stockholm for questioning amid fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States over WikiLeaks’ release of 5,00,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief said on a visit to Sri Lanka on Tuesday that Britain and Sweden should accept the findings of one of his panels that Mr Assange shad been arbitrarily detained. Last week, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued its conclusion — a non-binding legal opinion — that Mr Assange had been subjected to arbitrary detention by the Swedish and British governments. However, Bri-tain and Sweden angrily rejected the panel’s recommendations.

Speaking in Colombo, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said the Working Group, although not a court, based its decision on binding international law and that Britain and Sweden should therefore abide by its findings.