By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and MALIN RISING
LONDON — The law is closing in on Julian Assange.
Swedish authorities won a court ruling Thursday in their bid to arrest the WikiLeaks founder for questioning in a rape case. British intelligence is said to know where in England he is hiding, and U.S. pundits and politicians are demanding he be hunted down.
The former computer hacker who embarrassed the U.S. government and foreign leaders with his online release of a trove of secret American diplomatic cables suffered a legal setback when Sweden's Supreme Court upheld an order to detain him — a move that could lead to his extradition.
Assange continues to leak sensitive documents. Newly posted cables on WikiLeaks' website detailed a host of embarrassing disclosures, including allegations that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi accepted kickbacks and a deeply unflattering assessment of Turkmenistan's president.
Assange is accused in Sweden of rape, sexual molestation and coercion in a case from August, and Swedish officials have alerted Interpol and issued a European arrest warrant to bring him in for questioning.
The 39-year-old Australian denies the charges, which his lawyer, Mark Stephens, said apparently stemmed from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex." Stephens said the case is turning into an exercise in persecution.
While Assange has not made a public appearance for nearly a month, his lawyer insisted authorities know where to find him.
"Both the British and the Swedish authorities know how to contact him, and the security services know exactly where he is," Stephens said.
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