Ecuador grants asylum to Wikileaks' Assange

Ecuador has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Thursday, a day after the British government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest Assange.

Britain has said it is determined to extradite the former computer hacker, who enraged Washington in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published secret U.S. diplomatic cables, to Sweden where he has been accused of rape and sexual assault.    

"Ecuador has decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange following the request sent to the President," Patino told a press conference in Quito.

He argued that Assange's personal security was at risk, extradition to a third country without proper guarantees was probable, and legal evidence showed he would not have a fair trial if eventually transferred to the United States. 

"This is a sovereign decision protected by international law. It makes no sense to surmise that this implies a breaking of relations (with Britain)," Patino added.

Even with asylum granted, Assange has little chance of leaving the Ecuadorean embassy in London without being arrested.

There has been speculation he could travel to an airport in a diplomatic car, be smuggled out in a diplomatic bag, or even be appointed an Ecuadorean diplomat to give him immunity. 

But lawyers and diplomats see those scenarios as practically unworkable. 

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is a self-declared enemy of "corrupt" media and U.S. "imperialism," and part of a left-leaning block of South American leaders. 

He apparently hit it off with Assange during a TV interview the Australian did with him in May. Correa joked then with Assange that he had joined "the club of the persecuted". 

Foreign minister Patino called the U.K. government's threat to enter the embassy "brutal," and acknowledged the only way Assange could travel to Ecuador would be if Britain grants him a safe pass to travel to an airport.
 
Sweden rejects asylum decision

Sweden said on Thursday it rejected Ecuador's claim that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder wanted by Stockholm, would not have a fair trial as a reason for granting him political asylum.

"Our firm legal and constitutional system guarantees the rights of each and everyone. We firmly reject any accusations to the contrary," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on his Twitter account.

UK says will carry out 'obligation'

Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange changes nothing and Britain has an "obligation" to extradite him to Sweden, the Foreign Office said on Thursday.

Commenting on the "disappointing" decision, a spokeswoman said: "Under our law, with Mr Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We shall carry out that obligation."

Previous cases of personalities who took refuge in foreign embassies.

In December 1989, as the US military invaded Panama, military dictator Manuel Noriega took refuge in the papal nunciature in Panama City for two weeks before surrendering. He was given a 17-year prison sentence in the United States for drugs trafficking and money laundering.

October 1990: Lebanese general Michel Aoun, head of a disputed Christian government, was expelled from the presidential palace in a Syrian-Lebanese offensive. He took refuge for 10 months in France's embassy in Beirut before being forced to take exile in France, where he stayed for 15 years.

 April 1992:  Soviet-backed Afghan president Mohammad Najibullah, who had been toppled by the Mujahideen, took refuge in the UN's headquarters in Kabul. Najibullah and his brother were hanged from a traffic post after the Taliban movement seized Kabul.

July 1996:  The president of Burundi, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, a Hutu, took refuge in the residence of the US ambassador in Bujumbura, three days before being overthrown by the majority Tutsi army in a coup d'etat. He left the embassy in June 1997.

January, 1999:  The head of Kurdish rebels in Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan, took refuge in the Greek embassy in Nairobi. On February 15 he was arrested on the way to Nairobi airport by Turkish agents. Put on trial in Turkey, he was condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison after the abolition of the death penalty.

May, 1999:  Guinea Bissau president Joao Bernardo Vieira, toppled after a protracted conflict with the armed forces, took refuge in Portugal's embassy in Bissau. In June he was given political asylum in Portugal.

September 2002: During a military uprising in Ivory Coast, the former prime minister and main opponent of president Laurent Gbagbo, Alassane Ouattara, took refuge in the residence of the French and German ambassadors in Abidjan. In late November he left the country for Gabon, before going on to France. During a 1999 coup deposed president Henri Konan Bedie took refuge in France's embassy in Abidjan before going to Paris.

June 2008:  the head of the Zimbabwean opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, took refuge for a week in the Dutch embassy in Harare, after having given up taking part in the second round of presidential elections due to violence against his supporters.

September 2009: Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president who was expelled from his country at gunpoint in a June 28 coup, took refuge in the Brazilian embassy for four months after his clandestine return to Honduras.

April 22, 2012: Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng took refuge at the US embassy in Beijing after a dramatic escape from house arrest. After two weeks of dispute between Beijing and Washington he left for the United States with his family after the Chinese authorities issued him with a passport.



 

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