WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange will likely learn next month whether he can leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London without being arrested by local police, a British judge said Friday, possibly paving the way for his exit nearly six years after taking refuge inside.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot heard arguments Friday concerning the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued for the WikiLeaks chief in 2012, and she announced she’ll rule on Feb. 6 whether it’s worth upholding, according to court reporters.
If rescinded, the absence of a warrant could mean that Mr. Assange, 46, may leave the embassy without being arrested for allegedly breaching bail conditions imposed in connection with a now-defunct rape probe, a spokesman for the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told Reuters.
“Hypothetically yes, that would be our interpretation,” the spokesman said.
Mr. Assange became the subject of a sexual assault investigation after visiting Stockholm in 2010, and in 2012 he entered the Ecuadorean Embassy seeking protection in lieu of being extradited to Sweden for questioning and was granted asylum.
Swedish prosecutors ultimately dropped their case last May, but British authorities said Mr. Assange still risks arrest if he leaves the embassy because he was under house-arrest in connection with the rape case when he sought asylum and effectively jumped bail by entering.
Addressing the court Friday, attorneys for Mr. Assange said the closed nature of the Swedish case is reason enough to drop his arrest warrant.
“Given that proceedings have come to an end, and the kind of warrant it is, the argument has no status because it’s attached to ongoing proceedings,” attorney Gareth Pierce said on behalf of Mr. Assange, The Guardian reported.
“We say its lost its purpose and its function,” colleague Mark Summers told Reuters with respect to the arrest warrant.
Attorneys for Mr. Assange also argued in court filings that their client’s continued “imprisonment, without access to adequate medical care or sunlight” has placed his mental and physical health “in serious peril.”
Aaron Watkins, a lawyer for the CPS, dismissed Mr. Assange’s arguments as “absurd.”
Dismissing the warrant would give a criminal “effective immunity from being dealt with” because of “having managed to evade proceedings sufficiently long that they fell away,” Mr. Watkins said, Bloomberg reported.
Mr. Assange did not return messages seeking comment. He previously said he fears he’ll be extradited to the U.S. if arrested by British authorities and ultimately charged in connection with publishing classified State and Defense Department documents through his WikiLeaks website.
The Department of Justice has not unsealed charges against Mr. Assange, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called his arrest a “priority.”
A United Nations working group previously described Mr. Assange’s living situation as “arbitrary detention. More recently a group of doctors who examined Mr. Assange urged British authorities this week to let him safely exit the embassy to receive medical care.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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