United Kingdom

UK lawmakers: Julian Assange should face justice in Sweden

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Police bundle WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, center right, from the Ecuadorian embassy into a police van in London after he was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum. (@DailyDOOH via AP)

Police bundle WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy into a police van in London after he was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum. (@DailyDOOH via AP)

More than 70 British legislators are urging the government to make sure WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces Swedish justice if prosecutors there reopen a rape allegation against him.

The lawmakers signed a letter late Friday urging Home Secretary Sajid Javid to "do everything you can to champion action that will ensure Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden in the event Sweden makes an extradition request."

Sweden suspended its investigation of serious sexual misconduct two years ago because Assange was beyond their reach while taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

He was arrested Thursday and is now in British custody facing an extradition request from the United States on charges of conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer.

Assange has denied wrongdoing.