A Swedish court on Thursday ordered the detention of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on suspicion of rape and sexual molestation, a judge on the case said, while the prosecutor said an international warrant would be issued for his arrest.
“It has been decided that he be detained in absentia,” Alan Camitz, a Stockholm district court judge on the case, told AFP.
Prosecutor Marianne Ny, who had requested the detention, said in a statement that “an international arrest warrant will be issued” for the founder of the whistleblower website.
Mr. Assange had been detained in his absence “on probable cause suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion,” she said, adding that “to execute the court's decision, the next step is to issue an international arrest warrant.”
Mr. Assange has denied the allegations, which stem from his encounters with two women during a visit to Sweden in August.
WikiLeaks has angered the Pentagon by releasing thousands of classified U.S. war reports from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Assange had considered setting up a base for WikiLeaks in Sweden, where some of its servers are located, but Swedish immigration authorities denied him a residence permit.
