The 39-year-old Australian, who denies the accusations made
by two Swedish women after his visit to the country in August, had appealed two
lower court rulings allowing investigators to bring him into custody and issue
an international arrest warrant.
He has not been formally charged.
WikiLeaks has angered the US and other governments by
publishing almost half a million secret documents about US diplomatic relations
and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The search for Assange, whose whereabouts is unknown, was
stepped up Wednesday as Sweden confirmed it had issued a European arrest
warrant for him. Since leaving Sweden, the computer hacker has appeared in
Britain and Switzerland but disappeared from public view after a Nov. 5 press
conference in Geneva.
He has spoken publicly only through online interviews and
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said late Wednesday the organization was
trying to keep his location a secret for security reasons. He noted
commentators in the United States and Canada had called for Assange to be
hunted down or killed.
Britain’s The Guardian, which helped broker the original
WikiLeaks dump of Afghan intelligence files, has said Assange is hiding out in
southeastern England. The paper did not cite a source for its information and
Scotland Yard has declined comment.
Swedish police on Thursday said they would refile the
European arrest warrant after police in Britain said certain specifications
were missing.
Police spokesman Tommy Kangasvieri told local news agency TT
the British wanted Sweden to specify the maximum penalties for all three crimes
Assange is suspected of, and that will now be done.
The Supreme Court in Stockholm only reviews cases that are
of importance for the interpretation of Swedish law or in exceptional cases
where circumstances merit such a review.
It said it saw no reason to review the Assange case and
upheld the detention order. The previous court order had stated that Assange is
suspected of rape, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of unlawful
coercion.
Various Swedish prosecutors have previously disagreed about
whether to label the most serious charge as rape.
The details of what happened between Assange and the women
aren’t clear, but a police report obtained by The Associated Press says both
women spent a night each with the Australian during his visit to Sweden and
filed their complaints together a week later.
According to Assange’s British attorney, Mark Stephens, the
basis of the allegations seems to be a “dispute over consensual, but
unprotected sex.” Stephens on Thursday said he would challenge any eventual
British arrest warrant in court.
“The process in this case has been so utterly irregular that
the chances of a valid arrest warrant being submitted to me are very small,” he
told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview.
Stephens, a prominent British media lawyer who also
represents the AP, said he wasn’t prepared to detail the nature of any possible
legal challenge as he had yet to be served with a warrant.
Assange’s
Swedish lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, wasn’t immediately available for comment.
