LYON, FRANCE (BNO NEWS) -- Interpol on Wednesday issued a 'red notice' for Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, pursuant to a provisional arrest request in Sweden over rape and sexual molestation charges.

An Interpol's red notice is not an international arrest warrant. It is more a list of people wanted by national jurisdictions or the International Criminal Tribunals. A red notice intends to assist national police forces in identifying or locating those individuals wanted for arrest or extradition.

The red notices allow the warrant to be circulating worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested and extradited. Sweden issued an arrest warrant against 39-year-old Assange in order to seek assistance from other countries to arrest the Wikileaks founder.

Interpol issued the red notice just a couple of days after Assange, through his website, released approximately 250,000 top secret or classified documents that caused severe criticism worldwide. The United States, the most affected nation by the release, launched a criminal investigation on the matter.

The red notice was issued as Assange is accused in Stockholm on rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion charges. The incident involves two women he met and had sexual relations with them in Sweden in August. He was first accused on August 21 but charges were dropped quickly.

However, on September 1, the investigation into the rape allegations were reopened after suspicions that a crime was committed. Assange has denied the allegations on multiple occasions and added he had been told to expect dirty tricks from the Pentagon, including sex traps to ruin his reputation.

Assange's whereabouts are currently unknown, will have much more troubles to make international travels due to Interpol's red notice. He recently appealed for the second time the Swedish arrest warrant against him.

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