Mr Assange's lawyers are to launch an appeal after a Swedish court yesterday ordered the detention of Mr Assange on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

Mark Stephens, Julian Assange's UK-based lawyer,claimed to Channel 4 News that the prosecutor "jumped ahead" in her call for an arrest warrant, which is subject to an appeal in Sweden first.

Mr Stephens declined Channel 4 News an interview with Mr Assange directly on the basis that the prosecutor has not yet given Mr Assange details of the allegations against him, nor the evidence. He said Mr Assange has repeatedly asked to meet her and face police questioning.

"It makes it nigh on impossible to answer her. It is highly irregular. I have never seen this happen before," Mr Stephens said.

"She is deliberately poisoning the media well by portraying Julian as a rapist who's running from justice," he added.

'Flight risk'

Prosecutor Marianne Ny told the Swedish press however that she was not aware of Mr Assange's willingness to meet, adding that "the district court shared our opinion that there is flight risk in this case".

Mr Stephens, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent, said Ms Ny's "cynical ploy" is in breach of Swedish laws. "The co-counsel was not even told what the allegations were until they stood up in court yesterday," he added.

Mr Stephens claims there is an attempt to "disadvantage" Mr Assange by running a smear campaign against the WikiLeaks founder, who was responsible for the largest ever leak of classified Iraq war files last month.