Washington:
The State Department said on Tuesday the United States has no involvement in legal proceedings in London following the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Assange appeared on Tuesday afternoon at a court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier in the day.
A British judge denied Assange bail after the WikiLeaks founder told the court he would fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes investigation.
At the State Department, Spokesman P.J. Crowley called the case "an issue between Britain and Sweden," and said that the US continues its own investigation.
Crowley would not answer questions about whether the US would seek to extradite Assange to the United States, saying only that the US investigation is ongoing.
"What we're investigating is a crime under US law. The provision of 250-thousand classified documents from someone inside the government to someone outside the government is a crime," Crowley said.
Assange appeared at before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier on Tuesday, capping months of speculation over an investigation into alleged sex crimes committed in Sweden over the summer.
Assange and his lawyers claim that the accusations stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex" in Sweden in August, and have claimed the case has taken on political overtones.
Speaking in Stockholm, Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny rejected those claims.
"I have not had any contacts with Swedish politicians, neither Swedish nor foreign politicians," she told a Swedish journalist.
Meanwhile, cyber security expert Jim Lewis, a former US diplomatic security officer, said WikiLeaks could suffer if Assange remains behind bars for any prolonged period of time.
"WikiLeaks has changed in the last year. It used to be more a communal organisation and a lot of the original members were forced out. And now it revolves very much around the editor-in-chief, Assange, and if he's out of the picture, the organisation might fall on hard times," said Lewis.
Lewis said Assange's arrest will not affect WikiLeaks' technical operations, but it could affect how the organisation communicates.
Assange faces rape and sexual molestation allegations in one case in Sweden and sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in the other.
He denies the allegations and insists he will continue to fight extradition.
But that could be difficult. Extradition experts say that European arrest warrants like the one issued by Sweden can be tough to beat, barring mental or physical incapacity.
Assange appeared on Tuesday afternoon at a court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier in the day.
A British judge denied Assange bail after the WikiLeaks founder told the court he would fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes investigation.
At the State Department, Spokesman P.J. Crowley called the case "an issue between Britain and Sweden," and said that the US continues its own investigation.
Crowley would not answer questions about whether the US would seek to extradite Assange to the United States, saying only that the US investigation is ongoing.
"What we're investigating is a crime under US law. The provision of 250-thousand classified documents from someone inside the government to someone outside the government is a crime," Crowley said.
Assange appeared at before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier on Tuesday, capping months of speculation over an investigation into alleged sex crimes committed in Sweden over the summer.
Assange and his lawyers claim that the accusations stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex" in Sweden in August, and have claimed the case has taken on political overtones.
Speaking in Stockholm, Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny rejected those claims.
"I have not had any contacts with Swedish politicians, neither Swedish nor foreign politicians," she told a Swedish journalist.
Meanwhile, cyber security expert Jim Lewis, a former US diplomatic security officer, said WikiLeaks could suffer if Assange remains behind bars for any prolonged period of time.
"WikiLeaks has changed in the last year. It used to be more a communal organisation and a lot of the original members were forced out. And now it revolves very much around the editor-in-chief, Assange, and if he's out of the picture, the organisation might fall on hard times," said Lewis.
Lewis said Assange's arrest will not affect WikiLeaks' technical operations, but it could affect how the organisation communicates.
Assange faces rape and sexual molestation allegations in one case in Sweden and sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in the other.
He denies the allegations and insists he will continue to fight extradition.
But that could be difficult. Extradition experts say that European arrest warrants like the one issued by Sweden can be tough to beat, barring mental or physical incapacity.
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