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Ecuadorian prosecutor to interview Julian Assange at London embassy

Xinhua, September 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Prosecutors will interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuador's London embassy on Oct. 17, the Swedish Prosecution said on Wednesday.

The interview will be conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor, but Swedish chief prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a Swedish police investigator will be present to ask questions via the Ecuadorian prosecutor.

"I welcome the fact that the investigation will move forward," director of prosecution Marianne Ny, who is responsible for the investigation, said in a statement.

"We have waited for this interrogation for six years," Assange's lawyer Per E Samuelson told Swedish news agency TT.

The results of the interview will later be reported from Ecuador. After that, the Swedish prosecutors will decide how to proceed with the investigation.

Ny has rarely commented on the Assange case, but a week ago she and Isgren held a press conference in Stockholm. Little new information emerged during the news conference, which instead focused on running through the history of events since Swedish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant for Assange after allegations of sexual assault related to his 2010 visit to Stockholm to give a lecture. Assange denies those claims but has been remanded in custody "in absentia" since 2010. In 2012, he applied for asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and has been holed up there ever since.

At last week's press conference, the Swedish prosecutors made clear they had agreed to let Ecuadorian prosecutors interview Assange in order for the investigation to move forward. However, Ny also stressed that the fact that the Swedish investigator cannot hold the interview will mean a "loss in quality." Endit