Precedent warning as Assange extradition case ends

Britain's Supreme Court risks jeopardizing extraditions to many neighbouring countries if it stops WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being sent to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes, a lawyer for Swedish prosecutors argued Thursday.

On the final day of hearings to determine whether the Australian is freed from house arrest in Britain or flown out to face Swedish investigators, Clare Montgomery told the justices they could set a legal precedent making it "extremely difficult" for France and many other EU states to secure extraditions from Britain if the court ruled the warrant for Assange invalid.

Assange, 40, faces a difficult battle after two lower court rulings against him. Montgomery argued that the success of his case - which raises the point that the warrant was issued by a Swedish prosecutor rather than a judge - could affect the future of extradition to countries that have similar legal systems.

The seven Supreme Court judges, who have heard two days of legal argument, are expected to give a ruling in several weeks.

For Assange, lawyer Dinah Rose told them Wednesday that the arrest warrant issued against him in 2010 was invalid under English law on the grounds it was not issued by an impartial "judicial authority" but by a public prosecutor in Stockholm.

Montgomery, acting for the Swedish prosecution service, responded that it was an appropriate authority to issue such demands under the European Arrest Warrant system.

She said the European system allowed for differences between the roles of prosecutors in different legal systems and cited France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy among several states where arrest warrants were issued in similar fashion to Sweden.

The Swedish warrant stems from Assange's encounters in August 2010 with two women who were then WikiLeaks volunteers. They accuse him of sexual assault. He says they consented.

Swedish officials want to question Assange in order to decide whether there are sufficient grounds to charge him.