WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost his one legal bid to have a UK arrest warrant against him quashed, but immediately launched another, to have British authorities halt any action against him on public interest grounds.

The judge is set to deliver her decision on February 13th. The arrest warrant for Assange was issued in 2012 after he failed to answer bail over now-dropped rape allegations in Sweden. He took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. Assange says he still fears extradition to the US where he faces prosecution over WikiLeaks' publication of troves of classified US government documents.