Assange, a Queensland-born Australian, will appear in Britain’s highest court to learn the outcome of his appeal against extradition to Sweden, where is accused of rape, sexual molestation and coercion involving two women.

Assange, 40, has been holed up for a year at supporter’s country pile in England, shackled on the right ankle with an electronic monitor.

The legal action against him, since he was taken into custody in the UK in December 2010 under a controversial European Arrest Warrant (EAW), has generated widespread publicity.

A Swedish public prosecutor issued the warrant on allegations Assange had sexually assaulted two women during a visit to Stockholm in August 2010.

Assange is alleged to have had unprotected sex with one woman when she allegedly had insisted he use a condom, and also to have had sex with another woman when she was asleep. He denies strenuously the claims and says any sex was consensual.

Following his arrest, Assange was eventually given bail for $354,000.

However, a District Judge in London’s Westminster Magistrates Court ruled in February 2011 he be extradited. The decision was upheld by the High Court, a decision Assange’s lawyers are now appealing.

There are fears that from Sweden, Assange will easily be extradited to the US, where he is wanted for leaking thousands of US diplomatic cables.

Apart from asserting Assange’s innocence and that the legal process has been politicised to punish him over the embarrassing leaks, his legal team argues the extradition request was invalid on technical grounds relating to the EAW.

They said the EAW had been made by a “partisan prosecutor working for the executive”.

There are also questions over whether the prosecutor is a judicial authority and therefore qualified to issue the warrant.

The EAW has been a source of conflict within the British legal system since it was incorporated into anti-terrorism provisions after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.

The judges can take into account whether the warrant is politically motivated.

One of Assanges lawyers said: “This appears to be a persecution, not a prosecution.”

The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in Britain, however, if the Supreme Court rules Assange should be extradited, he may be able to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The Supreme Court has allowed the case two days.