Diplomatic fury as Ecuador grants asylum to WikiLeaks founder Assange

Police officers arrest a supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

Story by NBC News and wire reports
Photo by EPA

Ecuador granted asylum to Julian Assange on Thursday, expressing fury at a threat by Britain to seize the WikiLeaks founder at its London embassy.

Ricardo Patino, the Ecuadorean foreign minister, told a news conference in Quito it was upholding international law by granting asylum to Assange.

Britain earlier said it would revoke the diplomatic status of Quito's embassy in west London -- where the Australian has been holed up since June 19 -- in order to seize Assange irrespective of the asylum decision.

Patino expressed fury at Britain’s earlier threat to arrest Assange, saying it was a direct threat to the Ecuador’s sovereignty.

Assange, who incensed American government officials by publishing thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and Iraq and Afghan war dispatches in 2010, sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over assault and rape claims, which he denies. He exhausted all appeals after a 17-month legal battle.

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Protesters chant slogans in support of Assange, tussle with police outside of embassy in London.
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Sweden immediately summoned Ecuador's ambassador in Stockholm, according to foreign ministry spokesman Anders Jorle. He said: "We want to tell them that it's [unacceptable] that Ecuador is trying to stop the Swedish judicial process."

In his statement, Patino said there was a risk Assange would be taken to the United States where he "would not have a fair trial, he could be judged by special or military courts, and it is not unlikely to believe he would be treated in a cruel and degrading way, that he would receive a life sentence or death penalty, with which his human rights would not be respected.

Assange's recognition as a political refugee by Ecuador's leftist government was a big symbolic victory for the ex-hacker, but it did little to answer the question: `How will he ever leave the embassy?'

"We're at something of an impasse," extradition lawyer Rebecca Niblock said shortly after the news broke.

"The U.K. government will arrest Julian Assange as soon as he sets foot outside the embassy but it's very hard as well to see the Ecuadorean government changing their position."

She said there was practically no precedent for the situation, invoking the case of a Hungarian cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who camped out at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 to 1971.  "One can't see Mr. Assange doing the same thing," she told BBC television. "One side will have to back down eventually."

Outside the embassy on Thursday, protesters chanting slogans in support of Assange tussled with police.

"There was a serious escalation in the police presence, including a helicopter overhead," said NBC News' Keith Miller at the scene. "This has turned from a legal situation into a major physical standoff in central London. The next move will be interesting because the only way for Assange to leave the embassy is through the front door, where he would be immediately arrested."

A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police as the crowd shouted: "You are trying to start a war with Ecuador." About 20 officers were outside the embassy trying to push away the crowd of about 15 supporters.

"It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorian embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman earlier told Reuters by telephone.

"Giving asylum doesn't fundamentally change anything," the spokesman said, adding that Britain had a legal duty to extradite Assange to Sweden.

After the announcement, a spokesman said the UK foreign ministry "disappointed" but would still carry out its "binding obligation" to extradite Assange to Sweden.