Julian Assange has ditched his Swedish legal counsel and lined up a new defence team in readiness for a likely return to the country to face allegations of sexual molestation and rape against two women.
His new lawyers include Per Samuelson, who in 2009 represented Carl Lundström – one of the co-founders of notorious BitTorrent tracker website The Pirate Bay.
At the start of November, WikiLeaks founder Assange was ordered by a High Court judge in London to return to Sweden.
He was arrested by Scotland Yard police 11 months ago and was granted bail earlier this year, after his lawyers secured funds of around £200,000 from a number of celebrity friends.
Swedish prosecutors have repeatedly requested that Assange make himself available for questioning. They issued a warrant for the WikiLeaker's arrest, however they are yet to file charges in the case.
Assange is still fighting that extradition order. Lawyers acting for him in the UK filed appeal papers with the Supreme Court earlier this week.
But that really is his final chance to appeal against being banished from Blighty to Sweden.
Assange reportedly confirmed in a petition lodged with the Stockholm District Court yesterday that he wanted to work with attorneys Per E Samuelson and Thomas Olsson, according to the Local.
He ditched his previous lawyer, Björn Hurtig, who had represented the WikiLeaker-in-chief in Sweden since September last year.
Olsson told TT news agency that he has had only limited contact with Assange so far. “He'll have to explain his motivation behind changing defenders,” the lawyer said, who is now reviewing Assange's case.
Hurtig said there was no conflict between him and Assange over the legal team switch.
“You'll have to ask him why he's decided to change. But it's not unusual that someone change lawyers and he's chosen two superb new representatives. I wish him the best of luck,” he said. ®
