Wikileaks' Assange loses Sweden appeal

The highest Court in Sweden has rejected Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against his detention orders on Thursday. The Apex Court confirmed the earlier decision of the Svea Appeals Court to uphold the detention order. Earlier this week Assange's lawyer appealed against an arrest warrant issued against the 39-year-old Australian.

The High Court has not granted a leave to appeal, so the Svea Court of Appeals ruling still stands, Swedish High Court official Kerstin Norman told Reuters.

It was on Wednesday that France-based Interpol has issued a Red Notice for Assange on charges of sex crimes. He was wanted for questioning over rape allegations against him in Sweden. A Swedish woman appealed to the court accusing Assange of raping her during his visit to the country in August. A warrant was issued against him in the same month but was later dropped as the prosecutors claimed he was no longer a suspect in the case.

But in September, the case was re-opened after the public prosecutors maintained that there was 'reason to believe a crime has been committed' and it could be classified as rape. He was not detained then and was allowed to travel freely outside the country.

Police claim that the current whereabouts of the whistle-blower remained unknown, but UK media reports suggested that he was in South-east England.

Wikileaks has dismissed the allegations against Assange as part of a smear campaign. On Sunday, the website began publishing close to 250,000 US diplomatic cables. The classified documents contained conversations between several diplomats, most of them expressing concern over Iran's nuclear activity and unease over North Korea. Earlier the website leaked 75,000 US documents about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.