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Stockholm - Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday appealed a decision by a Swedish court to uphold an arrest warrant issued for him.
The defence argued that the warrant issued in November 2010 should be repealed on the grounds that the prosecutor has failed to act in a timely manner, violating Assange's rights.
The defence is seeking to overturn a July decision by a Stockholm District Court judge that the warrant should remain in place for Assange, 43, who has lived for the past two years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid extradition.
"We believe the arguments we made in the district court are sufficient to repeal the warrant," lawyer Thomas Olsson said.
The warrant was issued after a Swedish prosecutor said she needed to question Assange in a case of alleged sexual assault against two women in August 2010.
The Australian national denied the allegations and fled to the embassy after he fought a long legal battle in Britain against extradition to Sweden.
Officials at the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, where the defence's appeal will be handled, did not know when a possible hearing could be scheduled.
The defence and prosecution have disagreed over whether Assange could be questioned in the assault case at the embassy.
Ecuador, which has granted Assange asylum because he said he fears extradition to the United States because of Wikileaks revelations, has criticized the slow pace of Swedish justice.
US authorities are investigating WikiLeaks and its links to Chelsea Manning, the US soldier jailed last year for 35 years for leaking secret government documents.
