151 ecuadorian authorities have said that they will allow swedish authorities to interrogate wikileaks founder julian assange inside their embassy in london where he has been living for the past several years the announcement comes four years after the south american country first granted the transparency activist asylum and allowed him to live in the embassy a move that prevented his extradition to sweden where authorities have wanted to question him on allegations of rape in a statement released on thursday authorities said that the ecuadorian attorney general had notified his swedish counterpart of his willingness to allow assange to be questioned ecuador maintains that they have offered access to assange for questioning for several years swedish authorities had previously wanted to question assange in their own jurisdiction he was accused of a 2010 rape in the country no date for swedens interrogation of assange has been set the statement said that it would be agreed upon in the coming weeks he has not been charged and denies the allegations made by two women according to the associated press assanges defense lawyers welcomed the announcement saying it comes after six years of complete inaction on the part of the swedish prosecutor according to the ap swedish authorities sent a formal request to the ecuadorian embassy asking to interview the wikileaks founder in january the ap reported among other controversial publications wikileaks released secret military and state department documents it received from chelsea manning formerly known as bradley manning an american soldier who is currently serving a 35year sentence for the leak in the statement released on thursday ecuadorian authorities reiterated the validity of the asylum they granted to the australian citizen in august 2012 it said that a key motivation for granting assange asylum in the case was fear of political persecution