A Swedish court on yester
day upheld a four-year-old order for the detention of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over accusations of sexual assault that inspired a lengthy legal battle before he took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
Lawyers for Assange had sought to have the order withdrawn on the grounds that it could not be enforced while he was in the embassy, and they contended that it was restricting his civil rights.
But the Swedish court rejected the legal argument that it should “set aside the detention solely because Julian Assange is in an embassy and the detention order cannot be enforced at present for that reason”.
The ruling was a bitter defeat for Assange, an Australian who fled to the embassy in Knightsbridge two years ago, after Britain ordered his extradition to Sweden in February 2011.
“It is astonishing,” Michael Ratner, a prominent US civil rights lawyer who helps to represent Assange, said in a statement about the Swedish court’s ruling.
“He continues to be detained without charge, and the court concedes that this can continue for years to come.”
Sweden has not formally indicted Assange, but prosecutors in Stockholm want to question him about allegations of sexual misconduct relating to two women he encountered during a visit there in 2010.
He denies the allegations. Assange filed unsuccessful appeals in British courts against the extradition order before taking refuge in the embassy of Ecuador, which granted him asylum in 2012.
There had been speculation that, if he had succeeded in his appeal yesterday, Assange might have left the embassy.
He has said he fears that if extradited to Sweden, the authorities there would send him to the US.
Assange has expressed a willingness to meet with Swedish prosecutors in London, an offer that the prosecutors have turned down.
The US has not publicly indicted Assange or formally sought his extradition.