Swedish prosecutors requests Julian Assange's detention over rape allegations

The Swedish prosecutor heading an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange filed a request with a local court on Monday for him to be detained in absentia.

The request, filed by Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions Eva-Marie Persson at Uppsala District Court on Monday, alleges that Assange had sex with the woman in her home in August 2010 by "exploiting that she, due to being asleep, was in a state of helplessness".

It goes on to state that it is an "an aggravating circumstance" that he allegedly did not use protection despite being aware that "a condom was the plaintiff's express will and prerequisite for sexual intercourse".

Assange denies the allegations of rape.

It is now up to the district court to set the date for a detention hearing.

"If the district court decides to detain him, I will then proceed by issuing a European arrest warrant which requests that he is to be extradited to Sweden," said Persson in a statement on Monday.

Sweden reopened the rape investigation last week. It was begun in 2010 but dropped in 2017 after Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Assange, who denies the accusation, was arrested in London last month after spending seven years inside the embassy and was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching bail, Persson last week said it was now possible "to take the case forward".

Assange is currently being held in Belmarsh high-security prison in London.

The US has also filed an extradition request for Assange, in relation to WikiLeaks' release of a number of military and diplomatic documents. He is accused of conspiring with former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack classified databases, a charge which could result in a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Persson reiterated on Monday that in the event of a conflict between Sweden's European arrest warrant and the US' extradition request, it was up to UK authorities to decide on the order of priority.