WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces arrest as Sweden rejects rape appeal

Legal moves: Julian Assange at an earlier news conference. He is now believed to be staying in the South-East
12 April 2012

Police are poised to arrest Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, after a Swedish court rejected his appeal for authorities to drop rape allegations.

Detectives are trying to establish his whereabouts amid claims that he is staying somewhere in the south-east of Britain.

Today it emerged that he only escaped arrest yesterday because the Swedish authorities failed to fill out an arrest warrant correctly.

The details were expected to be resolved later today when a new warrant was being issued.

However, it was unclear if the authorities were aware of his location.

Scotland Yard sources said they did not know his whereabouts.

But Mr Assange's London-based lawyer Mark Stephens has stated that the 39-year-old Australian supplied the Yard with his contact details on his arrival in Britain in October.

He said the police knew his location but had not taken action.

Mr Stephens added the sex crime allegations were being used as a cover to hold Mr Assange in connection with the publication of the leaked cables.

The US authorities have been searching for a way of prosecuting him over the cables. He complained that his client had yet to receive formal notice of the allegations, which Mr Stephens described as a legal requirement.

He added that Mr Assange had repeatedly offered to answer questions about the investigation, to no avail.

Mr Assange himself has always denied the allegations saying that he had "consensual sex" with two women while in Sweden.

Today Sweden's highest court refused permission for Mr Assange to appeal against an arrest order.

Swedish Prosecution Office spokeswoman Helena Ekstrand said they had not received any information as to the location of Mr Assange.

"So the situation now is that the arrest warrant still stands and we are looking for Julian Assange," she said.

On Tuesday Interpol issued a "red notice" to 188 countries stating that Mr Assange was wanted in Sweden and asking anyone who knew of his whereabouts to contact them.

A red notice is not an arrest warrant, but is interpreted as a "trace and locate" alert.

Mr Assange has not been seen in public since the first WikiLeaks cables were revealed on Sunday.

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