WikiLeaks founder Assange quizzed in alleged rape case

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was being questioned by prosecutors on Monday at the Ecuadoran embassy in London in the latest twist in the long-running legal battle over a rape allegation against him.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, who will be present while Assange is questioned by an Ecuadoran prosecutor, entered the embassy building shortly before 1000 GMT, said an AFP photographer.

Assange’s lawyer Per Samuelsson has said the questioning, which has been delayed in the past because of diplomatic disagreements between Ecuador and Sweden, could last several days.

“I am very hopeful... Objectively, there is no doubt that everything happened as Assange said it did,” Samuelsson told Sweden’s TT news agency.

“Free Assange” and “You Won’t Stop Wikileaks” read banners held up by a small group of protesters outside the embassy as the officials arrived. “Freedom Loving People of the World Say Thank You Ecuador!” read another banner hung under the balcony from which Assange has sometimes addressed supporters.

A Swedish police inspector will also attend the questioning and investigators plan to take a DNA sample from Assange, subject to his agreement.

The creator of the secret-spilling website has been holed up in the red-brick building behind Harrods luxury department store for more than four years.

The 45-year-old Australian sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012 after Swedish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant against him, over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by two women who met Assange during a 2010 trip to Sweden.

He denied the claims, saying they were politically motivated, and insisting his sexual encounters with the two women were consensual. He has refused to travel to Sweden for questioning, fearing that he would be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Swedish prosecutors dropped the sexual assault probe last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired. But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

It was the first time Assange has been interviewed over the matter since initial questioning by Swedish police at the time of the allegation.

Assange, speaking through his lawyer, has said he welcomes the “chance to clear his name” and hopes the investigation will subsequently close.

In May, a Swedish court reaffirmed the arrest order, rejecting the finding of a UN working group that his confinement in the Ecuadoran embassy amounted to arbitrary detention.