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Mr Assange has not been charged with rape. Swedish police wish to interview him in connection with an allegation that has been made but he has declined to surrender to an arrest warrant for the purposes of being interviewed in Sweden, on the grounds (which I do not comment on) that he fears then being arrested and extradited to the USA in connection with the leaking of certain data protected under US security law. Mr Assange has indicated that he is prepared to be interviewed by Swedish police in the Embassy. Until recently the Swedish authorities were not prepared to accept that proposal, hence the impasse. I rather suspect that if Mr Assange were a more likeable character and the US data was limited solely to evidence of breaches of human rights and international obligations by the US goverment instead of a general mish-mash of data held under official secrecy provisions, commentators on this blog and Mr Goldsmith himself might be taking a slightly different view. Suppose instead that he were a campaigner for human rights in Russia accused by that government of tax fraud, which he maintained was a device to silence him? Would you still be arguing that the IBA should decline to hear anything from him?