A Swedish court has upheld an arrest warrant against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for alleged sexual assault. <\/p>\n
Wednesday's decision is a setback for 43-year-old Assange, who has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London for more than two years in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden. <\/p>\n
At the hearing in Stockholm District Court, prosecutors demanded that the warrant, issued in late 2010, should be upheld. <\/p>\n
Assange's defence team, which had maintained that the investigation had taken an unreasonably long time, said it would appeal the decision, according to Swedish news agency TT. <\/p>\n
As a result of the ruling, Assange will remain at the Ecuadoran embassy in London fearing extradition to the United States, said defence lawyer Per Samuelson, quoted by TT. <\/p>\n
The warrant was issued over allegations of rape and sexual molestation which Assange has denied. <\/p>\n
The WikiLeaks founder sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in Britain in June, 2012 after exhausting all legal options in British courts to avoid being extradited to Sweden. <\/p>\n
He has said he fears that his being sent to Sweden would be a pretext for his transfer to the United States, where WikiLeaks sparked an uproar with its publication of thousands of secret documents. <\/p>\n
WikiLeaks repeatedly drove the global news agenda with startling revelations of the behind-the-scenes activities of governments around the world, including confidential assessments by US diplomats of Chinese leaders and revised body counts in Iraq. <\/p>\n
Assange's legal team had argued that Swedish prosecutors have dragged out the case for an unreasonably long period by not interviewing him at the embassy. <\/p>\n
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