WikiLeaks: Assange lawyers ask UK to drop arrest warrant

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Europe

The lawyers of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have requested that a UK arrest warrant against him be dropped, in the latest attempt to allow him to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been living for over five years to escape prosecution.

Assange's lawyer Mark Summers told a London court on Friday that the warrant had "lost its purpose and its function."

Australian-born Assange, 46, entered the embassy in 2012 to dodge a European arrest warrant issued over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Swedish prosecutors however dropped their investigation last year and withdrew their European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

Still, British police say they will arrest Assange if he sets foot outside the embassy for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms.

On Friday, Summers argued that the withdrawal of the EAW meant the British bail arrest warrant could no longer apply.

Assange fears that, if arrested, he will be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Earlier this month, Ecuador granted him citizenship. Ecuador also asked London to recognize Assange as a diplomat – which would give him safe passage out of the embassy without fear of arrest – but Britain refused.

The prosecution said it was expecting a judgment on February 6.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters