Political stalemate surrounds Assange

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Political stalemate surrounds Assange

3News NZ

Police outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London (Reuters)

Police outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London (Reuters)

By Jenny Suo

Julian Assange has been granted political asylum in Ecuador, but it's getting there that is going to be the tougher task.

The army of police outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London won’t leave, which means Assange cant leave.

On the streets his supporters have clashed with authorities and called for his release.

Inside the embassy, Assange is pleased with Ecuador’s support.

''It was not Britain or my home country, Australia, that stood up to protect me from persecution but a courageous, independent Latin American nation. While today is a historical victory, our struggles have just begun," he says in a statement.

Assange became friends with Ecuador’s president while interviewing him on a news programme.

But Britain wants to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he faces sex crime allegations.

While the foreign office says it has an obligation to arrest him, it's denied allegations the UK threatened to storm the embassy.

So now what's left is a political stalemate, and one expert warns it could last years.

“Might I remind you that they have similar cases elsewhere in the world where people have been hosts of the embassy for years, not for months,” says Dr Francisco Panizza of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“And then it will have to be some kind of agreement or negotiation or maybe Mr Assange will be so bored that he will walk out of the embassy.”

But it could also be over in just a couple of days. WikiLeaks has put out a statement saying Assange will make an announcement in person and in front of the embassy at the weekend. But with police outside ready to arrest him, just how he'll pull it off remains a mystery.

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Comments

21/08/2012 2:37:26 p.m.

john wrote:

Julian Assange is only wanted on QUESTIONING!

remember these woman invited him home for sex!

Remember that these charges were dropped by the Swedish police, then re-open after the wikileaks saga.

18/08/2012 1:00:01 p.m.

kin Chang wrote:

I couldn't understand for asylum for Julian Assange, in United Kingdom, and he is not allowed to come out or will be caught or by storming the building by the British Police force. Look at China, the Blind Activist who not only walk out to the airport when he is in US Embassy in China, but also been treated well, in the hospital and been protected and guard by the Chinese government and approved to fly to the United State. But for Assange, in the Ecuador Embassy in London, is not allowed to peacefully grant asylum and travel to Ecuador, but was persecuted in a way and system contradict to China Communist law and rule. Are not the America or British are freedom of right and Democracy, seems like opposite to me, when you view how China release the Chinese Activist who peacefully walk away and threatened in a very good manner, while the USA demand and help for the release of the Blind Activist. What a contradict to communist law and western law, what happened to the western law anyway, confuse me. Could anyone reply that I can understand.

18/08/2012 12:20:05 a.m.

Nicola Weaver wrote:

Here is a great example of why Julian Assange does not expect help from his own nation: www.expendable.tv They are consumed with their own corrupt political agenda, and sell citizens at the drop of a hat, using their closed media to cover their tracks. Read the Australian government emails on there, all unreported over there, of course. Julian Assange is all too well aware of this situation. He is Australian, so he has nowhere to turn.