Assange lawyer Per Samuelsson said he lodged the appeal with Sweden's top court today afternoon to end the stand-off in which the WikiLeaks founder remains holed up Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition, while Swedish prosecutors refuse requests he be questioned there.
"We have to end this -- the situation is completely stalled, and that's the point we raised in our appeal," Samuelsson said in criticising what he called the "total passivity" of prosecutors who he said "have done nothing in four years."
The arrest warrant was issued in 2010 by Swedish prosecutors investigating a case based on accusations by one woman accusing Assange of rape, and another alledging sexual molestation.
Assange, 43, refused to return to Sweden to refute the charges he adamantly denies on fears Stockholm would extradite him to the US to be tried for his role in WikiLeak's publication of huge stores of classified diplomatic, military and intelligence documents.
Also Read
In 2012, he sought refuge in Ecuador's UK embassy to avoid arrest and likely forced extradition to Sweden. While he has proposed to testify in the Swedish inquiry from inside that mission, prosecutors insist Assange must return to Stockholm to be interviewed.
"We are asking the court to give us access to the phone text messages that the two plaintiffs exchanged, and which (prosecutors) possess," Samuelsson said, saying he was certain contents of the messages would prove Assange's innocence.
Samuelsson say Assange's embassy exile costs 11,000 euros (USD 12,500) each day. Moreover, he argues that in making it impossible for Assange to leave the mission without near certain arrest, the Swedish warrant has effectively denied Assange his civic rights before he's even been tried.