London: A British judge on Thursday ordered Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, to be handed over to Sweden, news agencies reported on Thursday.
Sources said that court gave him seven days to appeal the ruling.
Politicial experts are of the view that the verdict will mark a turning point in the three-month battle in the British courts and the media against what Mr. Assange, his legal team and his celebrity supporters say is a conspiracy to stop WikiLeaks and its campaign to expose government and corporate secrets.
Julian lawyers said that they would appeal against the verdict.
Swedish prosecutors argued that Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, must return to Stockholm to face accusations by two women who say that he sexually abused them last August. Under Sweden’s strict sexual-crimes laws, he is accused of two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of rape. His accusers, both WikiLeaks volunteers, have said that their sexual encounters with Mr. Assange started out as consensual but turned non consensual.
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