Ecuador to announce Assange asylum decision

Ecuador was due to announce its decision on granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday as it slammed Britain for threatening to storm Quito's mission in London to retrieve him.

Assange, an Australian national and former computer hacker, came to global attention after his website published a trove of secret documents that hugely embarrassed several governments, most notably the United States, in 2010.

But it is for his personal actions -- he is wanted for questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden -- that he is currently being pursued, and he has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy since June.

Ecuador on Wednesday hit out at Britain for threatening to storm its London mission to arrest Assange, while WikiLeaks said such action would be "a hostile and extreme act, which is not proportionate to the circumstances."

Assange, 41, says he fears eventual deportation from Sweden to the United States, which would seek to try him for his website's release of thousands of diplomatic cables and logs relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those disclosures were the biggest intelligence leak in US history, but in London the focus was on Britain's right to remove Assange from the embassy, should they wish to do so, and the diplomatic furore that could ensue.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said it would be "unacceptable" for British police to enter the embassy. He noted that his country "has made a decision" on Assange and would announce it in Quito at 7:00 am (1200 GMT).

Patino said Wednesday that Ecuador had received "an express threat in writing" from Britain "that they could storm our embassy if Ecuador does not hand over Julian Assange."

"Ecuador rejects in the strongest terms the explicit threat made in Britain's official communication," Patino told reporters.

"The position taken by the government of Britain is unacceptable, both from the political and the legal point of view," he said, warning that entering the embassy without authorisation "would be a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention" on diplomatic relations.

Britain's Foreign Office has threatened to invoke the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act of 1987, which it says allows it to revoke the diplomatic immunity of an embassy on British soil.

Around a dozen policemen, some wearing stab vests, were on Thursday positioned outside the embassy in the exclusive Knightsbridge district of London near the Harrods department store.

A similar number of protesters also stood outside the embassy, and a few activists had camped out overnight there.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "The UK has a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden to face questions over allegations of sexual offences and we remain determined to fulfil this process.

"Throughout this process we have drawn Ecuador's attention to the relevant provisions of our law, for example the extensive human rights safeguards in our extradition proceedings and also the legal status of diplomatic premises in the UK.

"We are still committed to reaching a mutually acceptable solution."

Assange took refuge at the embassy on June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden, which he claims plans to eventually surrender him to US authorities.

Even if the asylum request is granted, it is unclear whether Assange will be allowed to leave, as British police were waiting outside the embassy ready to arrest him for breaching the terms of his bail granted in 2010.

Assange had embarked on a marathon round of court battles, but he finally exhausted all his options under British law in June when the Supreme Court overturned his appeal against extradition.

Ecuador had said it was reviewing the sexual misconduct allegations as it weighed his asylum request. Assange maintains he had consensual sex with the alleged Swedish victims.

WikiLeaks infuriated Washington when it released a flood of secret war reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and of US embassy cables containing unguarded remarks by world leaders and diplomats.

The group's website charged that placing police outside the Ecuadoran embassy amounted to "a menacing show of force," designed "to bully Ecuador into a decision that is agreeable to the United Kingdom and its allies."

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has said that the mere possibility that Assange could face capital punishment in the United States could be reason enough for his government to grant the activist's asylum petition.

The leftist Correa has often been at odds with Washington and offered Assange asylum in 2010 before later backing off.

Assange's mother and the Spanish former judge Baltasar Garzon, who is helping to represent him, recently travelled to Ecuador to argue on his behalf.

Britian to refuse Assange safe passage

Britain has told Ecuador that it would refuse to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange safe passage out of the country even if Quito grants him asylum, official notes showed Thursday.

"We must be absolutely clear this means that should we receive a request for safe passage for Mr Assange, after granting asylum, this would be refused," Britain's charge d'affaires told the Ecuador government, a note of the meeting showed.





 

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