A former Swedish prosecutor has criticised attempts to extradite the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.Sven-Erik Alhem described the handling of the case as " peculiar" insisting there was no reason why Julian Assange could not be interviewed in Britain with Swedish investigators present.
Mr Alhem, who did not meet Mr Assange until today, flew in from Sweden to give evidence on the second day of the whistle-blower's extradition hearing.
His lawyers have argued that if sent to Sweden, Assange could end up being moved to the USA where he could face the death penalty for his controversial activities.
They claim the case is politically motivated.
But the court heard that extradition was sought only after repeated attempts were made to contact and interview Assange in person.
Swedish prosecutors claim he left the country after the allegations first surfaced.
Mr Alhem admitted under cross examination that he was not made fully aware of the many failed attempts to interview Assange and therefore the extradition attempt was understandable.
But he insisted as a prosecutor he would have attempted to conduct a hearing and interview in England first.
Assange wrote prolific notes in court, regularly passing them to his legal team.
He denies raping one woman and sexually assaulting another during a visit to Stockholm in August.
In dramatic testimony yesterday, a former Swedish appeal judge claimed the woman prosecutor pursuing Assange is "biased against men" and her actions are malicious.
Looking ahead to today's hearing, Assange told reporters: " A black box has been applied to my life.
On the outside of that box has been written the word rape. That box is now, thanks to an open court process, being opened.
"I hope that over the next day we will see that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that were on the outside of it."
But lawyers acting for Swedish Prosecutors challenged that and dismissed Assange's claims that he would be denied a fair trial in a country where rape and sexual offences trials are usually held in private.