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Sweden to ask again to question Assange over rape allegation
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) speaks as Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino listens, during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London, August 18, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/John Stillwell
17/12/2015
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish prosecutors will shortly submit a new request to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London over rape allegations, the Prosecution Authority said on Thursday.
On Sunday, the Quito government said Ecuador and Sweden had signed a pact after half a year of negotiations that would allow Assange to be questioned at the embassy, where he has been holed up for more than three years.
Assange, 44, took refuge there in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.
Assange says he fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States, where he could be put on trial over Wikileaks' publication of classified military and diplomatic documents five years ago, one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.
Swedish prosecutors, who first asked to interview the Australian in June, said in a statement that, when the necessary permits and arrangements were ready, Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a police investigator would question Assange, but that it was not clear when this would be.
(Reporting by Johan Sennero; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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