LONDON — Julian Assange lost a legal bid on Tuesday that could have dramatically altered the long-running saga that has compelled the controversial WikiLeaks founder to take refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for more than five years.
A British judge rejected his lawyers’ argument that an existing British arrest warrant against Assange should be withdrawn because the Swedish charges that underlie it have been shelved.
Lawyers for Assange argued in court that an outstanding British warrant, issued after Assange skipped bail, should be dismissed because it had “lost its purpose and function” following Sweden’s decision last year to drop an investigation into sexual assault allegations.
“I'm not persuaded that the warrant should be withdrawn,” Judge Emma Arbuthnot said.
The judge suggested that Assange could address the British warrant but that he had to first surrender and appear in court. “Once at court, a defendant will be given an opportunity to put an argument for reasonable cause. And that is when Mr. Assange will be able to place that before the court,” the judge said.
Assange has been staying — virtually imprisoned, he says — at the Ecuadoran Embassy for five years.
If he steps off embassy grounds, he faces arrest for skipping bail in 2012 when he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning about alleged sex crimes.
Last year, Sweden dropped its investigation into rape allegations against Assange because it was unable to get access to him.
Ahead of Tuesday’s ruling, a small group of Assange supporters gathered outside the court in central London. Some carried placards reading “Assange safe passage” and “Don’t shoot the messenger.” A separate evening demonstration outside the Ecuadoran Embassy was planned for Tuesday evening.
Assange has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden — he claimed the sex was consensual — but he has long argued that there is an international effort led by Washington to persecute him for his role in the publication of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents, diplomatic cables and emails.
It is not publicly known whether there is a sealed U.S. indictment against Assange.
Assange has been living in a tiny room in the Ecuadoran Embassy, and his organization continues to release sensitive documents on the Internet. Born in Australia, the 46-year-old was recently granted Ecuadoran citizenship.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, WikiLeaks published a trove of emails from the Democratic National Committee and John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. Last year, WikiLeaks released documents detailing U.S. government hacking tools.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo has denounced the anti-secrecy group as a threat to U.S. national security.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Assange called Pompeo’s statements “very strange and bombastic.”
In the last year, Assange has also been active in a campaign to support secessionists in the Catalonia region of Spain.
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