‘Victory’ for Assange as Swedish prosecutors head for London

Prosecutors had previously refused to travel to London, where Assange has spent almost three years inside the Ecuadorean embassy. Lead prosecutor Marianne Ny explained the change in position by saying some of the crimes the 43-year-old Australian is accused of will reach their statute of limitations in August.

“My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorean embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future,” Ms Ny said.

“Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies in the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward,” she added.

She said she had made a request to Mr Assange’s legal team to interview him in London and to have a DNA sample taken. She said permission was also being sought from Ecuadorean authorities. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said the decision was “a victory for Julian”, but criticised the delay.

“I think it’s absolutely outrageous that it took the Swedish prosecutor four and a half years to come to this conclusion after maintaining that she couldn’t come to London because it would be illegal to do so,” he said. “Obviously that was a bogus argument.”

One of Mr Assange’s lawyers, Per Samuelson, welcomed the move and said Mr Assange would probably accept the offer.

“This is something we’ve demanded for over four years,” Mr Samuelson said. “Julian Assange wants to be interviewed so he can be exonerated.”

The move comes after Mr Assange appealed against his detention order to Sweden’s Supreme Court, which earlier this week asked Sweden’s prosecutor-general to issue an opinion.