The Swedish Supreme court has ruled that no, it will not honor WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request to throw out the order that’s kept him in de facto confinement since 2012.
With a ruling of 4-1, the court denied Assange’s appeal to throw out a 2010 detention order to question him over sexual assault allegations. In 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he’s been ever since.
It’s a blow for Assange, who said when he first entered the embassy that he hoped he’d be out in a year. He’s rescheduled that date since them, saying in 2014 he’d leave “soon,” though even that now seems unlikely.
Assange has kept WikiLeaks a strong source of government unease in his relative confinement, including recently creating a database to search through a trove of hacked Sony emails, and acquiring and publishing multiple chapters of the controversial, shrouded-in-secrecy Trans-Pacific Partnership.
As noted by Reuters, Assange would still face charges for jumping bail if Sweden were to abandon its sexual assault investigation.
Assange’s official legal fund says it’s anticipating a U.N. decision on the legality of his case.
H/T The Guardian | Photo via New Media Days/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III
