LONDON – Prosecutors have questioned WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up for four years, in an investigation into allegations that he committed rape in Sweden in 2010.

Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing a flood of secret US diplomatic cables, fled to the embassy for fear that, if extradited to Sweden, he could be sent on to the United States and face a long prison term there for leaking US secrets.

Swedish Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren spent around four hours in the embassy, where she posed questions through an Ecuadorian prosecutor, before leaving without making comment.

Ecuador, which helped Assange avoid extradition by granting him asylum after he fled to its London legation, agreed to help Swedish prosecutors question Assange, who has denied the rape allegation.

“Today, after six years of offering his statement to the Swedish authorities, Julian Assange has finally been afforded the opportunity to do so,” WikiLeaks said in a statement.

But it complained that Assange‘s Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelson, was not notified or summoned to attend the session, and his absence was “a clear breach of process.”

A supporter of Julian Assange holds posters at Ecuador’s embassy in London, Britain, November 14, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

A member of Assange‘s legal team, Melinda Taylor, said procrastination on the part of Swedish investigators had denied Assange any right to clear his name.

“As a result of six years of delays and over four and a half years of illegal and arbitrary detention, Mr Assange is today faced with (a) Hobson’s choice: either he gives a statement in which his health, memory and psychological state are severely impeded, or, he is denied once more, an opportunity to be heard,” she said by email.

The 45-year-old Australian has refused to go to Sweden for questioning, saying that would expose him to further extradition to the United States, where a criminal investigation into the publication of secret documents by WikiLeaks continues.

In 2010, WikiLeaks published thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents in what became one of the largest information leaks in US history.

Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad.

– Reuters