The Swedish prosecutor's office on Friday said it has rejected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's request to temporarily suspend an arrest warrant so he could leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London and attend a funeral.
Sweden refuses to suspend WikiLeaks founder's arrest warrant for funeral
The prosecutor's office did not specify whose funeral Assange wanted to attend or where it would be held
Julian Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London since June 2012, seeking refuge there after exhausting all his legal options in Britain against extradition to Sweden
Recommended articles
![The Senate leadership dissociated itself from this action [Difference Between]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "The Senate leadership dissociated itself from this action [Difference Between]")
"Julian Assange has requested that the Swedish prosecutor should grant him leave from the detention order and the European arrest warrant in order to go to a funeral," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The prosecutor dismissed Assange's request, saying that Swedish law does not allow permission or exemption to a court decision on issuing of a European arrest warrant.
The prosecutor's office did not specify whose funeral Assange wanted to attend or where it would be held.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 45-year-old Australian has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London since June 2012, seeking refuge there after exhausting all his legal options in Britain against extradition to Sweden.
Assange has refused to travel to Sweden for questioning over rape allegations, which he denies, due to concerns that he would then be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In September, a Swedish appeals court ruled against his request to lift the arrest warrant, the eighth straight time a Swedish court has ruled against him.
A lawyer for Assange said he would go to Sweden's highest court after the ruling.
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
ADVERTISEMENT
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng
Recommended articles
Why our plane made emergency landing at Lagos airport, Air Peace clarifies
Over 75% of Katsina children are multidimensionally poor – UNICEF
PDP unveils 200-member campaign council for Ighodalo's guber election in Edo
Tinubu approves resumption of repair work on Third Mainland Bridge
Ondo Poll: Ganduje consoles Jimoh Ibrahim after crushing defeat in APC primary
FG to review recent price hike of DStv, GOtv packages amid public outcry
BREAKING: FG grants Air Peace right to commence Abuja-London flights - Keyamo
Deputy who dumped Akeredolu clinches PDP governorship ticket
Gov inaugurates 2nd phase of palliative distribution to poor Enugu residents
ADVERTISEMENT
![Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden [BBC]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'300'%20height%3D'172'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden [BBC]")