Julian Assange

Julian Assange should have been arrested in Sweden as soon as a prosecutor there decided he should be questioned on rape allegations, according to a defense witness in the Wikileaks editor's ongoing extradition hearing.

Sven-Erik Alhem, a former Swedish prosecutor, told the second day of the hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court that Assange should have been allowed to give his version of events once it was alleged that he had had coercive sex with two women.

"When [prosecutor] Marianne Ny decided to change the original decision not to prosecute [for rape]... in my opinion she should have made sure Assange should have been able to give his version of events in detail," Alhem told defense lawyer John Jones. "It's quite peculiar not to have both parties' versions of events as a basis for the prosecution and the courts involved."

Two women accused Assange of sexual coercion in August 2010, but Assange was neither arrested nor charged, and left the country on September 27.

Read more of "Assange should have been allowed to 'give his version'" at ZDNet UK.