A Swedish court upheld its detention order on Julian Assange on Wednesday, reaffirming the legal basis for an international warrant for the WikiLeaks founder which has kept him hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for two years, according to Reuters.
Assange has not been formally indicted in Sweden, but he is wanted for questioning by police over allegations of sexual misconduct and rape involving two women he met during a visit to the Scandinavian country in 2010, but he denies the allegations, Reuters reported.
One of Assange's defense lawyers, Per Samuelson, said they would study the judge's decision in detail and then "write a juicy, toxic appeal" to a higher court, according to Reuters.
Last month, Assange's lawyers filed a court petition to repeal the detention order, imposed by the Stockholm district court in November 2010, on the grounds that it cannot be enforced while he is at the embassy and because it is restricting Assange's civil rights, Reuters reported.
"Julian Assange is evading justice by seeking refuge at Ecuador's embassy," lead prosecutor Marianne Ny said, according to Reuters. "He needs to make himself available in Sweden for remaining investigative measures and a potential trial."
If Sweden were to drop its case against Assange, he would still face immediate arrest by British police for violating his bail conditions when he fled officials and sought refuge at the embassy, Reuters reported.
In a meeting last month with reporters at the embassy to mark his second year of hiding, Assange said he had no intention of going to Sweden because he has no guarantees he wouldn't subsequently be sent to the U.S., where an investigation into WikiLeaks' dissemination of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents remains live, according to Reuters.
Ny, the prosecutor, said she wasn't aware of any investigation in the U.S. and that she hadn't had "any sort of contact" with U.S. authorities, Reuters reported. "The only contacts we've had have been with Britain," Ny added.
