Madrid: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will appeal to international courts against an arrest warrant for alleged rape and sexual assault, his Spanish lawyer said on Tuesday.
Sweden's Supreme Court said yesterday it had rejected an appeal by the Australian former hacker, who has been taking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012.
The prominent Spanish former human rights judge Baltasar Garzon, a lead member of Assange's legal team, said in a statement he would appeal to international justice, arguing that Assange is being deprived of the right to a fair trial.
A source in Assange's legal team said they were examining which international courts they might appeal to.
Yesterday's ruling "exhausts the judicial proceedings possible at national level, so we will turn to international courts to safeguard his rights, which have been seriously breached", Garzon said in a statement.
He said the Swedish court had not taken into account "unjustified" delays in the case and the "de facto" detention of Assange, who would be arrested if he ventured outside the embassy where he has been holed up for three years.
Assange denies accusations by two Swedish women, one of who alleges rape and another sexual assault.
Assange refuses to travel to Sweden because he fears the country would extradite him to the United States.
US authorities are investigating the release by WikiLeaks in 2010 of 500,000 classified military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 250,000 diplomatic cables which embarrassed Washington.
Garzon reiterated that Assange is willing to be questioned by Swedish prosecutors in London "urgently, to end his situation of defencelessness which makes it impossible for him to have a fair trial".
