[JURIST] Swedish prosecutors on Friday issued a request to question WikiLeaks [official website] founder Julian Assange [Telegraph profile] over sexual assault allegations at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived since June of 2012. The move marks a change of course for the team of prosecutors, who have insisted since 2010 [BBC report] that Assange should be questioned in Sweden. Assange’s lawyer, Per Samuelson, welcomed the request, saying that his client would now be willing to fully cooperate in conducting the interrogation. Assange, who denies the claims against him, has sought refuge [JURIST report] in the Ecuadorean embassy for nearly three years in hopes of avoiding extradition to the US where he faces a criminal trial for his WikiLeaks publications. Both the British Foreign Office and Ecuador’s government expressed approval [Guardian report] of such an interrogation within the embassy earlier this year. Lead prosecutor Marianne Nye said [press release, in Swedish] that while she still believes that “the forms for a hearing with him at the embassy in London are such that the quality of the interrogation would be inadequate and that he needs to be present in Sweden at a trial,” the fact that the statute of limitations on several of his suspected crimes will run out in August 2015 has pushed them to take this risk.

The WikiLeak trials [JURIST op-ed] have garnered much debate in the US. In April US Army Major General Jeffery S. Buchanan upheld [JURIST report] Private Chelsea Manning’s [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] conviction and prison sentence for turning over classified information to WikiLeaks [official website]. Last September Manning filed for a presidential pardon of the 35-year sentence she received [JURIST reports] in August. The sentence came a month after she was found guilty [JURIST report] of violating the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of the more serious charge of “aiding the enemy.” In April 2013 the judge raised the burden of proof [JURIST report] in order to require the government to prove that Manning “knowingly” aided al Qaeda. Earlier that year Manning pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to 10 of the 22 charges against her for providing classified materials to Wikileaks. In the same month the judge dismissed a motion [JURIST report] that argued for Manning’s release based on a lack of a speedy trial.