Lawyers representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have filed a petition asking a Swedish court to quash an arrest warrant issued against him in a rape case. "We consider that there have arisen a number of new circumstances which mean there is reason to review the earlier decision," Thomas Olsson, one of the lawyers, told Reuters.

This comes after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention held earlier this month that Assange was "arbitrarily detained" in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange has been holed up at the embassy for more than three years since Swedish authorities sought his extradition in relation to sexual assault allegations made against him by two women. He has not been charged with any offence yet.