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Timeline: The key points in the Julian Assange case

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Timeline: The key points in the Julian Assange case
Julian Assange following a court hearing in London in 2019. Photo: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

The Local looks at the key points in the case of Julian Assange.

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August 2010

- Julian Assange is in Sweden and reportedly has sex with two different women.
- The Swedish Prosecutor's Office issues an arrest warrant for him following two separate allegations (one of rape and the other of molestation).
- Assange denies the allegations against him. 

November 2010

- Stockholm District Court approves a request to detain Assange for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion. 
- Assange is not present at the questioning and Swedish police issue an international arrest warrant via Interpol. 


Many of Assange's supporters have protested against his detention. Photo: TT

December 2010

- Assange gives himself up to London police and is taken to an extradition hearing. 
- He is put in custody pending another hearing and later granted bail but prosecutors appeal and he is sent back to jail until a higher court can consider the issue. 
- He is later granted bail and his supporters pay to have him freed for £240,000 (2,853,092 million kronor). 

February 2011

- A court in south London rules that Assange should be deported to Sweden, something his lawyers appeal against the following month.

June 2012

- After the Supreme Court in London rules that Assange should be deported to Sweden to face questioning, Assange is granted political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

July 2014

- Assange asks Stockholm District Court to reconsider his arrest warrant. The court says the warrant should stay in place, but Assange appeals the decision.

October 2014

- The Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm considers Assange's appeal
- The chief prosecutor responds to the appeal on Monday October 27th and Assange's legal team is given a week to look over her response.

November 2014

- Assange's legal team are given extra time to respond to the prosecutor's letter, with the court set to issue a final decision on November 20th.

- On November 20th, a Stockholm court upholds the arrest order for Julian Assange who remains wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.

- Assange's lawyer tells The Local he now plans to take the case to Sweden's Supreme Court.

February 2015

- Assange's lawyer formally takes his case to the Supreme Court in a final bid to persuade a Swedish judge that the arrest warrant against the Wikileaks founder could be lifted. However even if this case is thrown out, legal proceedings could continue.

March 2015

- Sweden's Supreme Court agrees to consider Assange's case

- Swedish prosecutors agree to question Julian Assange in London

April 2015

- Following up on an announcement saying it would consider Assange's case, Sweden's Supreme Court formally confirms it will hear his bid to overturn his arrest warrant.

May 2015

- Sweden's Supreme Court rejects Assange's bid to have the European arrest warrant against him overturned, citing "strong public interest" to investigate the alleged sexual offences.

June 2015

- Swedish prosecutors reveal they have submitted a request to British and Ecuadorian authorities to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London in June or July over rape allegations. The talks do not take place, with Swedish officials saying they were not granted permission.

August 2015

- The Ecuadorian embassy in London says in a statement that “on no occasion has any representative of the Kingdom of Sweden presented themselves at the embassy in relation to the Assange matter”.

- Sweden drops probes into two allegations after the charges expire in Sweden.

- Swedish and Ecuadorian officials meet in Stockholm to hammer out a judicial agreement which, although general in terms, could pave the way for prosecutors to quiz the WikiLeaks founder at Quito's London embassy.


Julian Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two years. Photo: TT

October 2015

- British police announce that they will no longer fund round-the-clock guards outside the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange is staying

- Ecuador says Britain has refused Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he reported a sharp pain in his right shoulder.

December 2015

- Sweden and Ecuador sign a preliminary agreement paving the way for Swedish prosecutors to question Assange.

January 2016

- Swedish prosecutors formally request permission from Ecuador to question Assange in London. Ecuador agrees and says it will cooperate with Swedish authorities.

February 2016

- Assange urges Sweden and Britain to let him leave the embassy in London after a UN panel rules he has been "arbitrarily detained" there for approaching four years. However, both countries reject the ruling. He later files a report to Stockholm District Court, asking it to drop the arrest warrant.

- Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny says she will not be swayed by the UN panel's decision, adding that she is working on a new request to Ecuador to let her team interview Assange inside the embassy.

May 2016

- Stockholm District Court upholds the arrest warrant against Assange.

June 2016

- Assange supporters mark the start of his fifth year in Ecuador's embassy. Participants include Patti Smith, Brian Eno, PJ Harvey, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ai Weiwei, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Moore and Ken Loach.

August 2016

- Assange appeals Stockholm District Court's decision to maintain his arrest warrant to Svea Court of Appeals.

- Ecuador says it will allow Swedish prosecutors to interview him in London.

September 2016

- Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, who is running the investigation, holds a press conference about the Assange case, saying she "saw no reason to give him special treatment".

- Ecuador says that Swedish investigators will travel to its London embassy to begin interrogating Assange on October 17th. The questions will be put to him by an Ecuadoran prosecutor.

November 2016

- An interrogation of Assange takes place in the Ecuadoran embassy.

May 2017

- Sweden drops the rape investigation into Julian Assange and lifts the Europe-wide arrest warrant against him in the seven-year-old case.

April 2019

- British police arrest Assange for allegedly breaching bail in the UK. Metropolitan Police officers were invited into the embassy after Ecuador withdrew its offer of asylum. 

May 2019

- Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions announces she will reopen the rape investigation and seek to have Julian Assange extradited from the UK

November 2019 

- Sweden's deputy director of public prosecution, Eva-Marie Persson, announces that the rape investigation will again be dropped.

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