The Assange affair

Even in China it is possible to negotiate the release of a dissident. The tentacles of the fascist regime of the USA are very long indeed.

UK police want Assange as he seeks asylum in Ecuador

London police say they are ready to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for breaching his bail conditions and spending the night in the Ecuador embassy while seeking political asylum in that country.

RT,

21 June, 2012

The WikiLeaks founder is currently at the embassy in London’s Hans Crescent, with Scotland Yard aware of his whereabouts. His bail conditions state that he should remain at his bail address at night, between the hours of 10 pm and 8 am. UK police say Assange breached his house arrest conditions as he stayed in the Ecuador Embassy Tuesday night.

As long as the whistleblower stays in the mission of the small South American country, he is beyond the reach of police. Once he steps outside he can immediately be arrested by officers stationed outside the Edwardian apartment block that houses the embassy.

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister Marco Albuja said that President Rafael Correa is expected to give instructions on whether to proceed with granting Assange asylum or not on Thursday.

"We still can't make a final decision public yet, until tomorrow,” Albuja said Wednesday night.

Legal experts differ in opinion as to whether asylum granted to Assange by Ecuador will let him obviate the legal proceedings that could bring his extradition to Sweden. It also remains unclear whether the procedure would guarantee Assange safe passage from the UK to Ecuador.

“The government of Ecuador has a capacity under international law to grant Assange political asylum, in which case he would be eligible to enjoy protected passage from the United Kingdom to Ecuador,” said Professor Donald Rothwell from the Australian National University College of Law.

Quite to the contrary, American attorney Kevin Zeese asserted that “there is no guarantee that the UK has to recognize the political asylum decision of Ecuador, and that could mean he will stay in the embassy for a long time.”

Zeese also says that the decision on Ecuador's part could take months.

“This could take a lot of time – there are thousands of refugee cases already waiting in line to be considered in Ecuador. Ecuador is the second-largest recipient of refugees in Latin America,” he explained.

Australian citizen Assange, 40, hopes that Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa will grant him political asylum after previous messages of support.

Assange has recently interviewed Correa for his exclusive program – The Julian Assange Show on RT.

Ecuador is believed to be considering his request while holding close consultations with the British authorities.

“What’s interesting to me is that under the US standards for granting asylum, Assange would meet them. He has a valid fear of persecution for his political opinions, and a real fear that the government to which he would be extradited would not be able to [protect him] itself, or prevent a third party government from interfering and persecuting him,”Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights director for the Government Accountability Project told RT in an interview.

“The United States has launched a worldwide manhunt against him. I think he correctly views this as a likely pretextual attempt to get him into Sweden which has a horrible history of caving to the United States and extraditing people, including those seeking political asylum. Ecuador is actually obligated to [grant him asylum] because it is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Radack concluded.

Assange was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service's Extradition Unit on December 7, 2010 on a warrant issued by Sweden. He is wanted in that country on allegations of rape and sexual molestation. The same day he appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Julian Assange denies all allegations and says extradition to Sweden could in reality mean jail in the United States. The whistleblower is wanted in the US for exposing as many as 250,000 State Department secret cables.

Supporters of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange gather outside Ecuador's Embassy in central London June 20, 2012 (Reuters / Paul Hackett)

Assange asylum bid driven by fear of life sentence or death penalty in US

Assange's representatives say he was forced to seek asylum because he fears a 'political prosecution' in the US

the Guardian,

20 June, 2012

Julian Assange sought political asylum because he believed he would not "see the light of day for 40 years" if he was extradited to Sweden, according to his New York-based lawyer.

Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the WikiLeaks founder in the US, said Assange and his legal team considered it highly likely that he would face an onward extradition to the US if he were sent to Sweden.

"The concrete reality [is] that he was facing a political prosecution in the US, he was facing the death penalty or certainly life in jail. Faced with that, he had extremely limited choices."

Barring a last-ditch appeal to the European court of human rights, Assange could have expected to be extradited imminently, after the supreme court rejected the last of his attempts to resist removal to Sweden over accusations of sex assaults made by two women in August 2010.

The Assange team believes the US is likely to seek to prosecute him on espionage charges, which carries a potential death penalty, and that his chances of resisting any such extradition warrant would be more difficult in Sweden, where he would not receive bail during investigations into the alleged sex crimes and where his lawyers believe political and public opposition to a US extradition claim would be weaker.

The US empanelled a secret grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and Assange in May 2011, but has not issued any requests for his extradition to the UK or Sweden. However, Ratner said both he and Assange believed it was "more likely than not" that a sealed indictment had been drawn up.

Assange's legal adviser Jennifer Robinson said in February that she and Assange had discussed the possibility of his seeking political asylum. Ratner said he had had no warning of the plan, however.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, said on Tuesday the Wikileaks founder had written to the country's president, Rafael Correa, to ask for asylum. Assange interviewed Correa last month for his TV show The World Tomorrow, broadcast on the Russian state-sponsored channel Russia Today.

Julian Assange interviews Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa – video Link to this video

It was during this interview that an offer of asylum was made, the Associated Press reported, quoting a woman who had been present during the interview but had spoken on condition of anonymity. It did not say whether the offer was personally made by Correa.

It is not at all clear what the Australian's next move can be, even if Ecuador does grant his request.

The Foreign Office has confirmed the embassy is diplomatic territory, and that while Assange remains there he is "beyond the reach of police". However, he will be subject to immediate arrest if he attempts to leave, the Metropolitan police have said, after confirming he had breached his bail conditions.

Assange's passport is understood to have been surrendered to British authorities, and even were he to be given a diplomatic passport, this would not confer automatic immunity, the British authorities indicated.

Anna Alban, the Ecuadorian ambassador, had a "cordial and constructive" meeting with Foreign Office officials on Wednesday morning to discuss the case, she said in a statement. "I welcome the statement from the UK government last night in which they stated that they (the UK government) would work with the Ecuadorian government to find a resolution.

"I also took the opportunity to explain that the decision on Mr Assange's application would be assessed by the department of foreign affairs in Quito and would take into account Ecuador's long and well-established tradition in supporting human rights.

She said it was not Ecuador's intention "to interfere with the processes of either the UK or Swedish governments", adding that she would make herself available to British government officials at any time "so that we can find a just and fair solution to this situation".

From the Alyona show on RT

Assange's Last Hope, Ecuadorian Embassy?

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange yesterday was at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, seeking political asylum. We'll put this into context and not forget that White House is currently embroiled in its own leaking scandal, and can't seem to make up its mind on how to play it. Jesselyn Radack, with the Government Accountability Project and Kevin Zeese, serving member of the Steering Committee of the Bradley Manning Support Network join the show.