20 Jun 2013

Assange intends to stay in Ecuadorian embassy

1:03 pm on 20 June 2013

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange intends to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has now been living in there for a year.

And he says he will stay there even accusations of if sexual assault against him in Sweden, are dropped.

Mr Assange walked into the building a year ago when an appeal against extradition to Sweden for questioning on sex claims that he has always denied, was turned down. He still fears being extradition to the United States for releasing secret documents.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has told Members of Parliament there was no progress on the case in talks with Ecuador on Monday.

"My lawyers have advised me I should not leave the embassy because of the risk of arrest and extradition to the US," Mr Assange said on Tuesday.

He claimed there was a sealed indictment already lodged against him in the US which would lead to him being taken from Britain if he stepped outside the embassy. He said:

"The strong view of my US lawyer is... I would be arrested, unless the British government gave information or guarantees that would grant me safe passage.

"We know there is an ongoing investigation in the US and we know I am a target of the Federal grand jury. There is a 99.97% chance that I will be indicted.

"So if the Swedish government drops their request tomorrow, I still cannot leave the embassy."

Mr Assange was granted asylum last year by the Ecuadorian government after a final appeal against his extradition was turned down by the Supreme Court in London.

He says he has effectively been under house arrest for almost 600 days as he fought extradition to Sweden through the courts and had to wear an electronic tag on his ankle and report regularly to the police.

He has a sun lamp and treadmill as well as a computer where he says he spends 17 hours a day working.

The BBC reports Britain has a legal obligation under European law to see that Mr Assange is sent to Sweden where prosecutors said in 2010 that they want to question him.

Ministerial talks

Foreign minister Ricardo Patino of Ecuador held talks with Mr Hague during a visit to London on Monday.

He said the embassy would continue to provide political asylum for Mr Assange.

The Foreign Office said: "Ministers agreed that officials should establish a working group to find a diplomatic solution to the issue of Julian Assange, but no substantive progress was made.''

Meanwhile, the BBC reports Metropolitan Police estimate the cost of policing the embassysince June 2012 to the end of May 2013 was £3.8 million.