Swedish Court Confirms Receiving Request From Assange Lawyers

A court in Stockholm on Monday confirmed receiving a request from Swedish lawyers of the WikiLeaks founder to overturn Julian Assange’s arrest warrant due to new circumstances in his case.

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) — Swedish media reported earlier in the day that Assange’s Swedish lawyers had asked the court to withdraw the warrant in a rape case after a UN working group on arbitrary detention (UNWGAD) ruled that the whistleblower was detained inside Ecuador’s London Embassy arbitrarily.

"The request follows the emergence of new circumstances, including UNWGAD’s decision on January 22, 2016 that Assange is being detained arbitrarily, and a UNWGAD appeal to Sweden to guarantee his freedom of movement and other rights enshrined in international laws in regard to detention," said the lawyers’ letter, provided to RIA Novosti by the Swedish court.

The lawyers are expected to file details that have recently arisen in Assange’s case to court by March 7 of this year. This means that the Stockholm court will not act on the request until it is filed formally with new details.

Assange has been stranded at the Ecuadorian Embassy since he sought refuge there in 2012. He is wanted on a rape charge in Sweden but claims it is a ploy to extradite him to the United States over publications by WikiLeaks of damning classified information.