A Swedis appellate court in Stockholm on Friday upheld the arrest warrant [order, PDF; press release] and detention order issued six years ago against Julian Assange [BBC profile]. The warrant, which Assange has challenged multiple times, was issued in 2010 in connection with sexual assault charges involving two women he met in Sweden at the time. Assange has consistently maintained his position [Guardian report] that any and all sexual relations with the two women were consensual and that these charges were politically motivated. Assange has thus far avoided extradition to Sweden by staying at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and the detention order seeks to bring Assange in for questioning. UN officials have determined Assange’s six-year detention order without charge is an arbitrary detention [JURIST report] and thereby unlawful, but the court rejected this determination as not binding on Sweden. The court further stated that Assange’s stay at the embassy cannot be regarded as an “unlawful deprivation of liberty.” Sweden’s prosecutors are currently planning to interrogate Assange sometime within the next few months while Assange remains inside the embassy in England. Meanwhile, Assange’s lawyers are currently planning to appeal the decision to the Sweden Supreme Court.

This is the eighth time that the arrest warrant against Assange was challenged in a Sweden court and all of the rulings thus far have gone against Assange. Assange concerns about being extradited to Sweden primarily relate to his fear of being extradited by Sweden to the US on espionage charges in connection with his role, as founder of WikiLeaks [advocacy website], in the release of classified US government materials to the public The WikiLeaks trials [JURIST op-ed] have also garnered much debate in the US. Last year US Army Major General Jeffery Buchanan upheld [JURIST report] Private Chelsea Manning’s conviction and prison sentence for turning over classified information to WikiLeaks. In September 2013 Manning filed for a presidential pardon of the 35-year sentence [JURIST reports] she received in August. The sentence came a month after she was found guilty [JURIST report] of violating the Espionage Act but was acquitted of the more serious charge of “aiding the enemy.”