WikiLeaks' Assange seeks probe of U.S. intel activity in Europe

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- WikiLeaks founder and Australian Senate candidate Julian Assange filed a formal complaint asking Sweden to investigate U.S. intelligence activities in Europe.

Assange also said an "intelligence source" alerted him that an Australian intelligence organization responded to a Swedish Security Service request for information about him in August 2010 and aided the FBI in its investigation against him as well, The Age reported Tuesday.

In his signed affidavit, Assange offered what he said was evidence of U.S. military intelligence investigations into WikiLeaks and himself dating back 2009 and FBI probes as recently as this year.

The document filed by Assange's lawyers with Swedish police Sunday reviews evidence of U.S. intelligence and criminal investigations involving WikiLeaks, including details revealed during the trial of U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning who was sentenced last month to 35 years in prison for leaking secret U.S. military and diplomatic reports.

The affidavit included details about surveillance of Assange by U.S. military intelligence at a conference in Berlin in 2009 and the suspected illegal seizure of his suitcase while he was flying from Stockholm to Berlin in 2010, The Age said.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London while fighting extradition to Sweden to answer questions in two sexual assault cases.

"I am informed by my legal advisers that this formal document may trigger an investigation and that independent judicial bodies may seek explanations of the responsible authorities as a result," Assange said. "I file this affidavit in the knowledge that there will likely be pressures for this matter not to be investigated, but in the knowledge that the law requires an investigation."

President Obama is traveling to Sweden Monday.

The Age said Assange plans to file similar complaints in Germany and Australia.