WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be questioned at Ecuadorean Embassy in London

Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual.

However, the Swedish deputy prosecutor in the case, Ingrid Isgren, will be present at the interrogation, together with a Swedish police officer.

A Swedish Prosecution Authority spokesperson said: As the investigation is ongoing, it is subject to confidentiality.

Last week, Swedish authorities announced they had worked out an arrangement with Ecuador to allow them to interview Assange.

Samuelson, Assange’s Swedish lawyer, said he had been barred from the meeting. The long-delayed interview is expected to continue on Tuesday and could extend beyond that.

Mr Assange has always denied the sex allegation.

But in September, a Swedish court ruled that the arrest warrant for Assange on allegations of rape still stood – the eighth time the European arrest warrant had been tested in a Swedish court. One of the women accused Assange of intentionally ripping a condom and holding her down by her arms and legs, while the other woman said he had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep.

Later on Monday WikiLeaks said Samuelsson had not been summoned to attend Assange’s questioning, blaming Sweden for “irregularities with procedure”.

“As a result of six years of delays and over four and a half years of illegal and arbitrary detention, Mr Assange is today faced with [a] Hobson’s choice”, Melinda Taylor, a member of Assange’s legal team, told Reuters.

The Swedes have been investigating the case for six years but no charges have been officially filed. After being released, he flew to London. Assange handed himself to the police and was granted bail, with the backing of high-profile journalists and celebrities like film-director Ken Loach and British socialite Jemima Khan.

“What we have asked from Sweden, and the United Kingdom, are guarantees that Mr Assange will not be extradited to a third country, where he could be persecuted for his work as as a journalist”.

Mr Assange is “not hiding” at the embassy, but he will not go to Sweden because he would thereby risk losing his Ecuadorean asylum status, his lawyer Jennifer Robinson told the BBC on Monday. His lawyer, Melinda Taylor, told Germany’s public broadcaster DW that Assange fears the outgoing U.S. administration may be doubling its efforts to have him arrested and extradited. Assange has not been indicted.

Assange’s health had “deteriorated seriously” since had been inside the embassy and he he’d been unable to see his family, Robinson said.