WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange loses bid to evade questioning over ‘rape’ allegations

After this morning’s hearing Assange condemned the European arrest warrant system, saying: “I have not been charged with any crime in any country.”

The WikiLeaks website published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables which embarrassed several governments and international businesses.

The Swedish authorities want Assange to answer accusations concerning alleged crimes in Stockholm in August last year.

Assange denies the allegations and says they are politically motivated.

Today, two judges rejected his lawyers’ claims that extraditing the 40-year-old Australian would be “unfair and unlawful”.

They upheld a ruling by District Judge Howard Riddle at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court in south London in February that the computer expert should be extradited to face investigation.

The decision, awaited by press and media worldwide, was made by President of the Queen’s Bench Division Sir John Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley.

Sir John described the case as “technical and complex” and gave Assange time to consider whether to apply to take his case to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

For that to happen, his lawyers will have to persuade the judges to certify that his case raises issues of general public importance which should be considered by the highest court in the land.

Assange showed no emotion and made notes while Sir John read out a summary of the court’s reasons for its ruling.

Dressed in a sharp, navy blue suit and wearing a Remembrance Day poppy, the world’s most famous whistleblower was earlier mobbed as he approached the Royal Courts of Justice and police had to redirect him away from the crowd.

Assange nodded and smiled at his supporters, who broke into a round of applause as he passed.

The judges ruled that the issuing of the European arrest warrant that led to Assange’s arrest and all subsequent proceedings to achieve extradition were “proportionate”.

They dismissed Assange’s argument that the warrant was invalid because it had been issued by a prosecutor, and not a “judicial authority”.

The judges held that the action of the prosecutor was subject to the independent scrutiny of Swedish judges, “which, as judges of another (EU) member state, we must respect”.

The court also rejected Assange’s assertion that the descriptions of the offences were not a fair and accurate description of the conduct alleged against him.

The judges said Assange’s argument that the use of the arrest warrant against him was disproportionate “fails on the facts”.

The challenge to the issue of the warrant had already failed in Sweden, before the Court of Appeal of Svea.

“In those circumstances, taking into account the respect this court should accord the decision of the Court of Appeal of Svea in relation to proceedings governed by Swedish law, we do not consider the decision to issue the EAW could be said to be disproportionate,” said the judges.

“Secondly and in any event, this is self-evidently not a case relating to a trivial offence, but to serious sexual offences.”

The judges said it was difficult to see what real scope there was for the proportionality argument when the Swedish court had taken the view that - “as part of Swedish procedure” - an arrest was necessary.

At a two-day hearing in July, Clare Montgomery QC, appearing for the Swedish prosecuting authority, said the women were alleging “non-consensual, coerced sex”.

They stated they were “trapped into a position where they had no choice”.

The evidence in the case of SW was “absolutely clear” and alleged that she had “been penetrated whilst asleep” while Assange was not wearing protection.

“She may later have acquiesced,” said Ms Montgomery. “That didn’t make the initial penetration anything other than an act of rape.”

SW later told a friend that Assange said he “wanted to impregnate women” and “preferred virgins because he would be the first to impregnate them”.

Ben Emmerson QC, appearing for Assange, argued that the prosecutor was not a “judicial authority” entitled to issue the EAW.

The warrant had also contained “fundamental mis-statements” of what occurred in Stockholm last August while Assange was in Sweden to give a lecture, said Mr Emmerson.

Assange’s encounters with two women who had made complaints involved consensual sex and would not be considered crimes in England, he argued.

The EAW was misleading in its accusations that he had used violence or “acted in a manner to violate sexual integrity”, Mr Emmerson went on.

These “mis-descriptions” were at odds with descriptions given by the women themselves as to what had occurred.

Today all of Mr Emmerson’s arguments were unanimously rejected by the judges.

Assange burst into the public consciousness in April last year when WikiLeaks released Collateral Murder - video footage of a US air crew shooting Iraqi civilians in 2007.

The whistleblower website, which claimed a database of 1.2 million documents within a year of its 2006 launch, regularly hit the headlines in 2010 with a series of leaks.

The US Embassy cables, Afghanistan war logs and Iraq war logs, which were drip-fed to the media in 2010, helped raise the profile of Assange.

By the end of the year he had become a minor celebrity. After his arrest last December, he had a number of famous friends and supporters who helped him to raise bail of £200,000.

These included film-maker Ken Loach and socialite and charity fundraiser Jemima Khan, who each offered £20,000.

Investigative journalist and documentary film-maker John Pilger accompanied him to court today.

Assange always claimed that the allegations against him were politically motivated and linked to the activities of the whistleblower website.

He recently revealed that the site is at risk of closure and is suspending its publishing operations to concentrate on fighting a financial blockade and raising new funds.

The stricken website is running on cash reserves after an “arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade” was imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western union last December, said Assange.