Assange asks UK court to lift his arrest warrant, which is ‘theoretically possible’

London — After more than five years holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange is asking a UK court to lift his arrest warrant.

A one-day hearing will take place at Westminster magistrates court and a ruling is scheduled to be issued on Friday, according to a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since evading deportation amid Swedish sexual assault charges.

Given the Swedish "proceedings have come to an end and the kind of warrant it is, the argument is it has no status because it’s attached to ongoing proceedings", Gareth Pierce, Assange’s lawyer, told journalists before the start of court Friday.

It’s "theoretically possible" that Assange could be released Friday, the CPS spokesperson said. The hearing comes after reports that the Australian’s health has severely deteriorated. Ecuador granted Assange citizenship earlier this month after failed attempts at diplomacy with British officials.

Assange and WikiLeaks have become famous over the past decade for disclosing confidential documents about the US government and politics. In 2016, WikiLeaks injected itself into the middle of the US presidential race by publishing hacked e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Assange is asking the court to lift the warrant about eight months after Swedish prosecutors dropped the underlying rape probe, saying that his steps to evade questioning made it impossible to pursue the case.

Assange walked into the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012, after exhausting options in UK courts to avoid extradition over the allegations stemming from a 2010 trip to Sweden. He refused to return to the Scandinavian country, citing risks he would be extradited to the US London police say that warrant is still in force unless lifted by a court.

"Westminster magistrates court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court" in 2012, the police said in an e-mailed statement. "The [London] Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the embassy."

Bloomberg