STOCKHOLM, Nov. 20 -- A Swedish Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday to uphold the arrest warrant against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange issued in 2010 over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.

"There is no reason to set aside the detention solely because Assange is in an embassy and the detention order cannot be enforced at present for that reason," the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm said in a statement.

Thursday's ruling by the Appeal Court was the same as one by a Stockholm District Court earlier in mid-July.

Assange is wanted for questioning over the alleged rape and sexual assault claims made by two women in Sweden in 2010, allegations he denied and said were part of a smear campaign against him.

The Ecuadorian embassy in London granted him asylum in 2012 after the British Supreme Court refused to reopen his appeal against extradition.

Assange then stayed at the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Stockholm, from where, he fears he would be extradited again to the United States, where he could face charges over the release of thousands of secret documents by Wikileaks that have embarrassed the U.S. government.

In 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables and 500,000 classified military reports, covering both U.S. diplomacy and the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.