Britain's High Court today gave Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, permission to appeal against his extradition from the UK to Sweden.
Swedish authorities want to question the 40-year-old Australian over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers during a visit there in August 2010.
Mr Assange, who has been living in Britain since his arrest there in December last year, denies wrongdoing. He can now take his year-long legal fight to Britain's Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
The 40-year-old spent nine days in London's Wandsworth prison after his arrest last year. He was freed a week before Christmas on bail and has since been living at the country house of a wealthy supporter in eastern England.
His arrest came shortly after WikiLeaks published thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that included unflattering views of world leaders and candid assessments of security threats.
Mr Assange says the allegations are politically motivated.
Mr Assange lost his last attempt to avoid being sent to Sweden on November 2 after two High Court judges upheld a previous ruling.
The application to take the case to Britain's Supreme Court rests on two legal questions: is the warrant for Mr Assange's arrest valid, and can he be considered an "accused" person as required under extradition laws when no decision has been taken over whether he will be prosecuted.
In 2010, WikiLeaks posted 391,832 secret papers on the Iraq war and 77,000 classified Pentagon documents on the Afghan conflict. It has also made available about 250,000 individual cables, daily traffic between the State Department and more than 270 American diplomatic outposts around the world.
Reuters