WikiLeaks’s Assange agrees to meet with prosecutors

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday said he will agree to meet with investigators who have been pursuing him on sexual assault allegations.

Assange plans to meet prosecutors at Ecuador’s London embassy at an undetermined future date, Reuters reported. The data leaker has remained in exile there since criminal charges were brought against him in June 2012.

“Now we await further word,” Thomas Olsson, Assange’s Swedish lawyer, said after accepting the prosecutors’ request.

{mosads}Thursday’s announcement comes after Swedish prosecutors expressed openness toward meeting Assange in London last month. They had originally wanted to try the WikiLeaks founder within their country’s borders.

Swedish law enforcement first alleged Assange sexually assaulted two women there in 2010. The Australian has since hidden behind Ecuador’s protection in an effort to avoid extradition efforts against him.

Assange maintains he is innocent of the charges. The WikiLeaks founder has voiced concerns that leaving Ecuador’s embassy would result in his extradition to the United States.

WikiLeaks helped Army private Chelsea Manning publish a massive cache of U.S. diplomatic and military documents in 2010. The U.S. has since vowed it would investigate WikiLeaks on criminal espionage charges for its role in the leak.

Manning is serving 35 years at a maximum-security military penitentiary in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for her role in the leak. She was tried as Bradley Manning in July 2013 before coming out as transgender after the trial’s conclusion and changing her name.