Two Swedish women who volunteered with WikiLeaks have both accused Assange of rape and sexual assault during meetings that took place in late summer. Assange, 39, says his relations with both women were consensual.
He's also called their claims "dirty tricks" by the Pentagon and part of a "legal circus" in Sweden, where he sought to set up a base for WikiLeaks where the whistle-blower site would be shielded from prosecution under the country's strict journalism protection laws.
Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the target of an arrest warrant requested Thursday by a Swedish prosecutor investigating rape and sexual molestation charges against him. Assange has denied the allegations.
An Australian citizen, Assange has a reputation for suspicion, secrecy and reclusiveness. He has said he believes a high-level conspiracy is working to discredit him. He's angered the Pentagon and other powerful forces with his release of documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. WikiLeaks recently made public nearly 400,000 classified U.S. files that revealed that thousands more Iraqi civilians died during the war there than the U.S. military previously acknowledged.
But Stockholm prosecutor Marianne Ny said today's warrant request has nothing to do with Assange's work.
"The reason for my request is that we need to interrogate him. So far, we have not been able to meet him to carry out the interrogations," Ny said, according to Reuters. A court hearing is set for today.
This isn't the first time the Stockholm prosecutor's office has requested such a warrant for Assange. It issued a warrant in late August and then withdrew it a month later, but announced that it was continuing to investigate the rape and sexual molestation charges, The New York Times reported.
If Ny's request is granted, authorities could issue an international arrest warrant for Assange, who is believed to be in Britain, Agence France-Presse reported.
Assange's lawyer in Sweden, Bjoern Hurtig, called the prosecutor's petition "exaggerated" and "out of proportion."
"He of course denies the allegations and opposes being arrested, and we do not think it is proportional to demand his arrest just to interrogate him," Hurtig told AFP.
But Claes Borgstroem, a lawyer for the two Swedish women, who haven't been identified, told Sweden's TT news agency, "Finally. This should have been done earlier."