Arrest warrant ordered for Wikileaks founder

An international arrest warrant is to be issued against Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, after a Swedish court ruled he should face questioning over a rape allegation.

Assange is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion after encounters with two women during a visit to Sweden in August. He denies the allegations and insists it was consensual sex.

Prosecutors in Sweden were yesterday granted an arrest warrant claiming they have been unable to question Assange. Director of public prosecution Marianne Ny said she sought a court order to detain Assange because "so far we have not been able to meet with him".

But Assange's lawyers said their client offered to be questioned before he left Sweden and to make a sworn statement. "These offers have been flatly refused by a prosecutor who is abusing her powers by insisting that he return to Sweden," said Mark Stephens, Assange's London-based lawyer. He added that the allegations were "false and without basis".

Assange, 39, a veteran computer hacker, founded Wikileaks in 2006 and it has published almost 500,000 secret US documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ny said she would seek Assange's arrest through Interpol.

- Independent