Hackers loyal to the jailbird Julian Assange have been attacking various Swedish websites and are probably responsible for an upswing in computer crime.

Swedish coppers say they have linked a recent internet attack that blocked access to several popular Swedish websites to the controversy surrounding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since claiming asylum on June 19 because he does not want to got to Sweden to face questions about sex attacks on two women.

Assange claims if he faces the music on the sex attacks he will be extradited to the US to face spying charges. A Swedish police computer expert Anders Ahlqvist said that the number of internet attacks aimed at Sweden had increased since the case against Assange emerged.

He said that every time something happens in the Assange case, there are more attacks on the internet in Sweden. Sites of major banks, such as SEB and Swedbank, were affected on Monday, as were those of the national railway company SJ and the TT news agency.

On September 3, the websites of several Swedish public authorities, including that of the government, were paralysed by a distributed denial of service attack in which sites are overwhelmed by a deluge of requests, putting them out of service. A pro-Assange group claimed responsibility in that case.

But face it who else would have a grudge against Sweden?