Assange in new bid to cancel UK arrest warrant

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange expected to find out yesterday whether the British arrest warrant hanging over him is to be cancelled, potentially paving the way for him to leave Ecuador’s London embassy.

Assange has been holed up in the embassy since 2012, dodging a European arrest warrant and extradition to Sweden over a 2010 probe into rape and sexual assault allegations against him.

Sweden dropped investigation last year.

But British police are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating his bail terms during his unsuccessful battle against extradition.

Assange’s legal team has asked a British court to cancel the warrant, but a judge last its week dismissed his claims that the document was rendered null- and-void because there was no longer any underlying crime.

“I’m not persuaded that the warrant should be withdrawn,” Judge Emma Arbuthnot told a court in London, explaining that Assange had breached his bail conditions in 2012.

But she said she would rule on another application from Assange’s lawyers asking her to consider whether it would be in the ‘public interest’ to keep the warrant in place.

The former hacker fears that arrest by British authorities could lead to him being extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year said his arrest was a ‘priority’. — AFP