WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuador Embassy in London and has asked for political asylum, Ecuador's foreign minister said on Tuesday.Read the rest here.
"Ecuador is studying and analyzing the request," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in the capital Quito.
The Ecuador Embassy issued the following statement:This afternoon Mr Julian Assange arrived at the Ecuadorian Embassy seeking political asylum from the Ecuadorian government.
As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito.
While the department assesses Mr Assange's application, Mr Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorian Government.
The decision to consider Mr Assange's application for protective asylum should in no way be interpreted as the Government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden.
Good luck with that. The last time I checked "rape" was not classified as a political crime anywhere in the world. Nor is Sweden a country that is likely to prosecute someone on trumped up charges just to make the US happy. If anything Sweden has a more sober and fair legal system than ours. So I say pack him off to Sweden and let him have his day in court.
6 comments:
I don't personally find the rape charges remotely believably based on all the events involving those women leading up to and after the so called rapes. It's all rather ludicrous and far fetched sounding.
I am sure then that Mr. Assange has nothing to worry about then. The Swedish authorities will quickly resolve the matter in his favor once he is extradited so that the investigation can be concluded. I find it odd that a man with no guilt should be so concerned about a criminal investigation in one of the most progressive and liberal countries on the planet.
"...a criminal investigation in one of the most progressive and liberal countries on the planet."
Rape = "he didn't call me afterward!"
Anti-Gnostic,
I pretty much agree with John (although it seems Assange is not worried so much about rape charges in Sweden as he is about extradition to the US).
However, your "rape= " remark is just not funny. It really isn't.
Dana Ames
Assange pissed off a groupie. Rapists are high-t, low-g individuals of which Assange is neither. The whole "culture of rape" meme is hilariously detached from the reality of who is actually committing rapes and the circumstances under which rapes take place. That is, it would be hilarious if it didn't have such awful consequences.
I don't know what "high-t, low g" means.
One of A's groupies being pissed off is certainly a possibility. I agree that the meme exists and can be problematic.
We're both entitled to our opinions, and our opinions have an ice cube's chance in hell of influencing any aspect of this situation. It's because of that, and because you understand the awful consequences of rape, that I would think you would understand that flip remarks serve to strengthen the meme on the one hand, and undermine mercy on the other.
Forgive me.
Dana
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