London, Dec 7 (IANS) Beleaguered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will surrender to British police — possibly as early as Tuesday — after a fresh arrest warrant was issued by the Swedish authorities, a media report said.
Assange, who is wanted over allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, is expected to voluntarily attend a police station within the next 24 hours and will then appear in a magistrates’ court, The Daily Telegraph reported.
He is currently in hiding in the southeast of England but police are understood to have the necessary paperwork to arrest him.
Mark Stephens, Assange’s British lawyer, said: ‘We are in discussions about him going to the police by consent.’
Assange suffered another setback Monday when Swiss authorities closed one of his bank accounts, one of the sources of funding for the WikiLeaks site.
The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of over 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents in recent weeks.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.
Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Assange for questioning on suspicion of ‘rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion’ after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations.
His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued by Sweden last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the British authorities.
A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week and were being processed.
Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: ‘The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.’
News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.
