Ecuador Allows Sweden to Interrogate Julian Assange on Accused Rape Charges

Ecuador and Sweden have agreed on a deal allowing Julian Assange to be interrogated by Swedish officials at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The WikiLeaks founder was accused of rape in Sweden five years ago, and has remained at the embassy for more than three years to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where prosecutors want to interrogate him about the sexual abuse claims, CNN reported. Assange, a 44-year-old Australian, has not been charged and has denied the rape allegation. In 2012, Ecuador granted him political asylum.

However, Ecuador and Sweden reached an agreement "on legal assistance in criminal affairs as a result of the negotiations which started last June," the Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Ministry said, as quoted by CNN.

The official continued, "The agreement guarantees, among other things, the application and respect of the national legislation and principles of international rights, particularly those related to human rights, and the full exercise of national sovereignty, in any case of legal assistance between Ecuador and Sweden."

The legal pact between the two nations was signed in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito after half a year of negotiations, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

According to Swedish Justice Ministry official Cecilia Riddselius, Sweden's government will decide on the case on Thursday, with "an exchange of diplomatic notes" to immediately follow, CNN reported. Next, it will be up to the Swedish state prosecutor to renew a request to question Assange under the agreement's terms.

Swedish prosecutors previously opposed questioning Assange in Ecuador's embassy in London, and insisted that any such interview should be held in Sweden, the news outlet added. However, this year's impending expiration of Assange's statute of limitations for a number of his alleged crimes prompted Swedish authorities to change tactics.

Britain, which has accused Ecuador of obstructing justice by permitting Assange to stay in its embassy in central London, reacted positively to the new agreement, Sydney Morning Herald added.

Assange fears Sweden would extradite him to the U.S., where he could be slapped with the death penalty over WikiLeaks' publication of classified military and diplomatic documents five years ago, deemed as one of the largest information leaks in the history of America, CNN wrote.

Since its launch in 2006, WikiLeaks has published thousands of classified government documents, cables, and videos, including a procedures manual for Camp Delta, the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, as well as classified military documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq war indicated how many Iraqi civilians were killed, "the role that Iran has played in supporting Iraqi militants," and plenty of "accounts of abuse by Iraq's army and police," CNN listed.