STOCKHOLM - A Swedish court has rejected a request to postpone a planned hearing to rule on the detention in absentia of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged rape, a defence lawyer for Assange said on Tuesday
Swedish defence lawyer Per Samuelson told Reuters he had visited Assange in British custody on Friday after which he had sought to have the hearing postponed. "I meant that it should be postponed until I had time to meet again and go through the issues in peace and quiet. I suggested no specific date and meant it should be postponed until everything was ready, but the district court has now decided that this won't happen."
Sweden reopened the rape investigation in early May. It was begun in 2010 but dropped in 2017 years after Assange took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy. Assange was arrested in London last month after spending seven years inside the embassy.