LONDON, Nov 2 � In a major setback to Julian Assange, the controversial WikiLeaks founder today lost a legal battle to stay in the UK, with the High Court here ruling that he should be extradited to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault charges there, reports PTI.
However, the lawyers of the 40-year-old founder of the whistle-blower website said they will make a final appeal in the Supreme Court within 14 days.
At the High Court, Justice John Thomas and Justice Duncan Ouseley decided that a previous ruling in favour of his extradition must be upheld after rejecting the arguments by lawyers on behalf of Assange, who is an Australian national.
Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping a woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm last year. Assange denies the allegations and says they are politically motivated.
�In any event, this is self evidently not a case relating to a trivial offence, but to serious sexual offences,� the High Court judges said.
Assange, who was wearing a navy blue suit and pale blue tie, made a short statement on the steps of the court after the ruling, saying: �We will be considering our next step.� He urged people to turn to a website set up in his support.
�No doubt there will be many attempts made to try to spin these proceedings as they occurred today but they were merely technical. So please go to �swedenversusassange.Com� if you wish to know what is really going on in this case,� he said.
After making the statement, Assange refused to answer media questions as he left.
A European arrest warrant was issued against Assange by Swedish authorities.
