Story highlights
- Questioning will be led by Ecuadorian prosecutor
- Two Swedish authorities can be present
London (CNN)Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will be questioned in the Ecuadorian embassy in London next month over rape allegations, the Ecuadorian prosecutor's office said.
Swedish prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Assange in August 2010 based on allegations of sexual assault by two female Wikileaks volunteers in the country and have for years sought his extradition. Ecuador said last month it would allow an interrogation of Assange.
The announcement comes a week after Sweden renewed its calls for Ecuador to go ahead with the interrogation. Sweden and Ecuador had signed an agreement for cooperation and mutual legal assistance on criminal matters.
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According to a statement released Monday evening, Ecuadorian prosecutor Wilson Toainga Toainga will lead the interrogation October 17, based on questions sent by Swedish authorities, and DNA samples may be taken from Assange.
Ecuadorian authorities will allow two Swedish officials to be present during the interrogation, the statement said.
The Australian-born Assange, 45, denies the allegations and has been holed up at the embassy since 2012. He has said he fears an extradition to Sweden could lead to another extradition to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks.
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Swedish authorities said in August 2015 that they were discontinuing their investigation into suspected sexual molestation and unlawful coercion allegations as the five-year statute of limitations had been reached.
In July, Assange made headlines again after WikiLeaks published emails and voicemails leaked from the Democratic National Committee.
Maximum sentence of six years
On a separate matter, the Swedish Court of Appeals announced Tuesday it would rule on Assange's appeal to rescind his detention order this Friday. Assange's first appeal was denied in May.
Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny told reporters last week that the maximum sentence in rape cases is usually six years, though in Assange's outstanding case she estimated a potential sentence of 18 months to two years.
Since WikiLeaks launched in 2006, it has published thousands of classified government documents, diplomatic cables and videos.
Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Julian Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks, has been a key figure in major leaks of classified government documents, cables and videos since his site launched in 2006.
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Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Assange holds a copy of The Guardian newspaper in London on July 26, 2010, a day after WikiLeaks posted more than 90,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan War.
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Assange attends a seminar at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Stockholm on August 14, 2010. Six days later, Swedish prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest based on allegations of sexual assault from two women.
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Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Assange displays a page from WikiLeaks on October 23, 2010, in London. WikiLeaks released approximately 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War the day before.
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Assange and his bodyguards are seen after a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 4, 2010. It was the month WikiLeaks began releasing diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies.
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Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Assange sits behind the tinted window of a police vehicle at Westminster Magistrates court in London on December 14, 2010. Assange had turned himself in to London authorities on December 7 and was released on bail and put on house arrest on December 16.
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Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Assange supporters stand outside Belmarsh Magistrates Court in London on February 24, 2011, as a judge ruled in favor of Assange's extradition to Sweden.
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Copies of the "unauthorized autobiography" of Assange sit on display in a bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 22, 2011. Earlier that month, WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.
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Assange speaks to demonstrators from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London on October 15, 2011.
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Two police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 20, 2012, after Assange took refuge there to avoid arrest and extradition by British police. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012.
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Assange speaks from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on December 20, 2012. Facing arrest by British officials, Assange has not set foot outside the embassy since June 2012.
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Assange appears with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on the balcony of the embassy on June 16, 2013.
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Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Assange in the film "The Fifth Estate." Assange refused to meet the actor, stating: "I believe you are well-intentioned, but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you. By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give."
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Assange speaks during a panel discussion at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2014.
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Assange attends a news conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August.
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In 2007, it posted a procedures manual for Camp Delta, the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay.
Three years after that, the site posted more than 90,000 classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan. It was described as the biggest such leak since the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War.
WikiLeaks has also published almost 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War, providing insights into how many Iraqi civilians have been killed and accounts of abuse by Iraq's army and police.
Assange, who has vowed to release more information to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign, has been doing media interviews via satellite from the embassy.