Julian Assange: New witnesses interviewed in alleged Swedish rape case

Swedish prosecutors investigating rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange have interviewed two new potential witnesses.

Swedish prosecutors investigating rape claims against Julian Assange have interviewed two new potential witnesses in a flurry of activity on the probe.

The Wikileaks founder was accused of raping a woman he was staying with in Sweden during a conference in 2010, which he has always denied.

Swedish authorities are under time pressure because they cannot file charges after August next year, a decade after the alleged offence, under Swedish law.

Sweden’s Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Eva-Marie Persson said on Monday night Australian time that they were now considering seven statements.

Julian Assange is driven into Southwark Crown Court in London before being sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaching his bail conditions. Picture: AFP

“During the (European) summer, we have conducted interviews intended to verify the evidence, as nine years have passed since the suspected crime,” she said.

“We have concentrated on the inquiries possible to conduct here in Sweden. The interviews are now being transcribed and analysed.

“We have mainly reinterviewed those individuals who were interviewed in 2010, although two of the persons interviewed have not previously been interviewed.”

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The alleged victim demanded Swedish authorities reopen the investigation in May after Assange was removed from the Ecuadorean embassy.

He had been there for more than seven years as he evaded extradition to Sweden over the allegations, which he claimed were a way to allow him to be sent to the United States on spying charges.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spent seven years holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy. Picture: AFP

A British judge disagreed and said Assange’s time in the embassy had frustrated the Swedish probe.

Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks’ jail over breaching bail, which he is now serving in the maximum security prison in Belmarsh, southeast London.

Ms Persson said she may seek to interview Assange on the matter, which may have to be conducted in the prison or via video link.

“Once we have analysed the interviews, I will decide how to proceed with the case. The investigation may then be discontinued or I may decide to conduct further inquiries,” she said.

Jennifer Robinson, Julian Assange's London-based lawyer at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

“If I make the assessment that the next step is to interview Julian Assange, I will issue a European Investigation Order, in which case I shall write to the British authorities with a request to conduct an interview.”

Assange’s half-brother Greg Shipton revealed at the weekend he had appealed to Prime Minister Scott Morrison for help in the case.

Assange also faces 175 years’ jail in the United States where he is wanted on spying charges for his leaks of classified government documents through his website.

The United States, which will continue its bid to extradite him through the British courts in February, claims he put lives at risk by revealing the identity of covert operatives.

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