Advertisement
Assange questioned for second day at Ecuador's UK embassy over rape allegation
Jennifer Robinson, the lawyer of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, reads a statement to news media outside Ecuador's embassy in London, following Assange's interviews with a Swedish prosecutor in London, Britain, November 15, 2016. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
15/11/2016
LONDON (Reuters) - Prosecutors questioned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for a second day at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up for four years, in an investigation into allegations that he committed rape in Sweden in 2010.
Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing a flood of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, fled to the embassy for fear that Sweden could end up sending him on to the United States where he could face a long prison term for leaking U.S. secrets.
Swedish Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren spent several hours at the embassy on Tuesday where she posed questions through an Ecuadorian prosecutor, before leaving without making comment.
"The interview with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has ended," the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement. "As the investigation is ongoing, it is subject to confidentiality."
Assange, who has repeatedly denied the rape allegation, sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in August 2012. He is wanted in Britain for breaching bail.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents in what became one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.
Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
The results of the interview will later be reported from Ecuador to the Swedish prosecutors in a written statement.
(Reporting by Neil Hall in London and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Add new comment