Julian Assange: WikiLeaks founder will have to wait until …

A LONDON court will rule on February 6 whether to drop an arrest warrant against Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, after his lawyers made a surprise request for the move in Westminster Magistrates Court.

Assange, who has spent the past five years holed up in the embassy, next door to Harrods in Londons posh Knightsbridge district, asked his lawyers to argue that the warrant, issued after he breached his bail conditions, be discontinued after Swedish authorities confirmed that their extradition warrant is no longer live.

Assange, 46, breached his bail conditions and requested asylum in the embassy in 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden over an allegation of rape, which he has consistently denied.

Swedish prosecutors confirmed they had dropped the investigation against him last year but Assange could still be arrested if he leaves the building in Knightsbridge due to his skipping of the UK bail conditions.

In the Westminster Magistrates Court his lawyers argued now that the Swedish case had been dropped the warrant had lost its purpose and its function.

Asked if Assange could walk free, a spokesman for the Crown Proscution Service said: Hypothetically, yes. That would be our interpretation.

The magistrate also said she needed to examine medical evidence that Assange is suffering a terrible bad tooth, frozen shoulder and depression.

A scrum of photographers and broadcast vans assembled outside the embassy as a single supporter tied a red Free Assange banner on to the wrought iron fence and handed out leaflets condemning Sweden and the UKs legal pursuit of the Wikileaks founder.

Shoppers from the famous department store Harrods, which is next door, stopped to ask questions while cars and taxis slowed down to make sense of the throng.

There was no appearance of Assange who sometimes makes speeches from the embassy balcony.

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British police have said Assange would be arrested for breaching bail conditions should he leave the building.

He is seeking to have the warrant of arrest discontinued because the Swedes have confirmed that the extradition warrant is no longer live, a spokesman for Britains Crown Prosecution Service said.

He is seeking that therefore the warrant of arrest should be taken out as well.

Asked if a successful ruling could enable Assange to walk free, the spokesman replied: hypothetically yes, that would be our interpretation.

It comes as his doctors warned his health was at risk as a result of his six-year confinement.

Sondra S Crosby, Brock Chisholm and Sean Love, writing on The Guardians website, said that they spent 20 hours over three days assessing Assanges condition.

Without giving any particular details, they said that his confinement has had an impact on his physical and mental health.

As clinicians, it is our ethical duty to advocate for the health and human rights of all people as promised under international law, wrote the doctors. Experience tells us that the prolonged uncertainty of indefinite detention inflicts profound psychological and physical trauma above and beyond the expected stressors of incarceration.

These can include severe anxiety, pathological levels of stress, dissociation, depression, suicidal thoughts, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain, among others.

It is unconscionable that Mr Assange is in the position of having to decide between avoiding arrest and potentially suffering the health consequences, including death, if a life-threatening crisis such as a heart attack were to occur.

Further, our assessment reveals that he has had no access to sunlight, appropriate ventilation or outside space for over five and a half years.

The WikiLeaks founder has not stepped out of the Knightsbridge, west London, embassy since August 2012.

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