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Ecuador’s president names condition for Assange to leave London embassy

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More than six years after Julian Assange moved into the confines of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the WikiLeaks founder may finally end his self-imposed isolation.

Julian Assange is free to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London any time, but only if Britain guarantees his safety, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno has said, Sputnik reports.

According to Moreno, Ecuadorian authorities are currently in talks with Assange’s lawyers to work out an agreement that would ensure the security of the WikiLeaks’ founder “‘in line with the norms of international law.”

“If we come to an agreement, we’ll be happy to ask Mr. Assange to leave the embassy and surrender himself to legal investigation,” Lenin Moreno said in an interview with the national TV channel NTN24.

Late last month Moreno said that Julian Assange should leave the premises of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Shortly afterwards, media reports said that the Australian journalist planned to walk out of the Ecuadorian mission due to health problems related to his long-time isolation.

Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Knightsbridge residence since 2012, fears he will be extradited to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked US military and diplomatic documents.

Sweden dropped its investigation into Assange over allegations of sexual offenses in May 2017.

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Sweden drops Wikileaks founder Julian Assange rape case

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Sweden drops Assange rape case

Sweden drops Assange rape case

Sweden’s director of public prosecutions has decided to drop the rape investigation into Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the BBC reports.

Marianne Ny filed a request to the Stockholm District Court to revoke his arrest warrant, apparently ending a seven-year stand-off.

Mr Assange, 45, has lived in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, trying to avoid extradition.

He feared being extradited to the US if sent to Sweden.

He could face trial in the US over the leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents.

A brief statement ahead of a press conference by the prosecutor later on Friday said: “Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange.”

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Assange legal drama enters new phase

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assang-new-dramaWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be questioned by a Swedish lawyer in his London asylum. This means the grounds for the existing warrant against him will no longer apply, but he still won’t be safe from arrest.

The email affair that dogged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the recent US election played a large part in the triumph of her Republican opponent Donald Trump. The scandal can be traced to a six-storey apartment building in the exclusive London district of Knightsbridge, the raised ground floor of which houses the Ecuadorian embassy.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has spent the past four years here in asylum. For months the disclosure website put pressure on Hillary Clinton by feeding a constant flow of information into the public domain. In mid-October the Ecuadorian embassy cut its guest’s access to the Internet, presumably at the United States’ request.

However, WikiLeaks does not consist of Julian Assange alone. The revelations continued. On the day of the election, Julian Assange declared that neither he nor WikiLeaks had any interest in influencing the result in any way, especially as both Trump and Clinton were extremely hostile to whistleblowers. But he said WikiLeaks’ job was to publish material if it was authentic and of news value. This, he said, was undoubtedly the case with the documents from the Clinton camp. The 45-year-old Australian claimed that WikiLeaks would have loved to have published documents about Trump and his team as well, had they been sent any.

Six-year investigation

Right now, though, Julian Assange’s agenda is dominated by something else entirely. On Monday, Stockholm’s chief prosecutor, Ingrid Isgren, accompanied by a Swedish police officer, will walk down Basil Street, past the solidarity vigil being organized by Assange’s supporters and into the Ecuadorian embassy. There she will question Julian Assange about the rape accusation that has dogged him for the past six years, despite the fact that no charges have been brought.

This interrogation, a step forward after years of standoff, is part of an investigation that began in 2010. The case was in fact closed by a state prosecutor in Stockholm in August 2010, on the grounds that it was not possible to establish that a crime had been committed. However, Marianne Ny, a state prosecutor from Göteborg, took the case up again.

What needs to be understood is that Swedish law governing sexual offenses is unusually broad. The woman whose statements form the basis of the preliminary investigation at no time felt threatened by Assange: There was never any talk of violence. It was enough for her to say that on a night in which they had already had sex, he penetrated her again while she was half-asleep – without using a condom. When the woman visited a Stockholm police station in August 2010, she was seeking information on how she could make Assange take an AIDS test.

Fears of extradition to the US

The European arrest warrant under which Assange was detained in England, more than 2,160 days ago, is intended only to make it possible for representatives of the Swedish justice system to question him. Once he has been questioned, the grounds for this arrest warrant would automatically cease to apply.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/assange-legal-drama-enters-new-phase/a-36378413

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Sweden to interview Wikileaks founder

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free-wikileaksEcuador has agreed to allow Sweden to interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside its embassy. The Australian has been sheltering in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid arrest on a Swedish criminal warrant.

Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that “in the coming weeks” a Swedish judge will be admitted inside its diplomatic compound to take a statement from the 45-year-old Australian national.

Assange is wanted for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation in Sweden but has been inside Ecuador’s UK mission for more than four years in a bid to avoid extradition.

Assange denies the charge, saying the sexual contact was consensual and the charges politically motivated to retaliate over his role in Wikileaks, which publishes leaked data that is often embarrassing for governments and officials.

A long-running saga

Assange won an important victory before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Februrary which had found that Sweden and Britain violated his fundamental rights.

Ecuador has maintained it would allow Sweden to take custody of Assange if Stockholm guarantees that he would not be sent to the United States for prosecution over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 US diplomatic cables in 2010.

Since then the anti-secrecy group has continued to leak files gleaned by hackers including emails from within the Democratic National Committee that suggested collusion between top party officials and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The party’s chair and other top officials resigned following the revelations.

Wikileaks has also been criticized for dumping unfiltered data including a recent email dump from Turkey’s ruling political party that had little apparent public interest value but included the personal contact information of women voters in nearly every Turkish province.

jar/kl (AFP, EFE)

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/sweden-to-interview-wikileaks-founder/a-19464749

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Ecuador, Sweden Sign Deal Facilitating Assange’s Interrogation

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1014956193Ecuador and Sweden have sealed an agreement on legal assistance in criminal affairs, which noticeably facilitates the interrogation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – “The agreement, without any doubt, is a tool that strengthens bilateral relations and facilitates, for example, the execution of such legal actions as the questioning of Mr. Assange, isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,” the ministry said in a statement.

The countries have been negotiating on this document since summer 2015 following the request of the Swedish authorities to the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office on Assange’s questioning in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum.

Assange is wanted for questioning by Swedish authorities since 2010 on accusations of sexual coercion and rape. In April, he consented to the prosecutor’s conditions for the interrogation procedure.

The WikiLeaks founder argues that Sweden’s rape charges are a ploy to extradite him to the United States, where he is wanted for publishing thousands of leaked top-secret military documents and diplomatic cables.

Assange, an Australian national, launched the WikiLeaks website in 2006. Since then, the site has released millions of classified papers.

Source: sputniknews.com

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Ecuador Feared Britain Would Storm Embassy to Grab Assange

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1028527234New documents reveal the staff in the Ecuadorian embassy feared that the UK authorities would attempt to storm its London embassy in an effort to spring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, holed-up inside to avoid extradition.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2012 when the South American country granted him political asylum. He was avoiding extradition to Sweden on charges relating to sexual molestation and one count of unlawful coercion. Assange denies the accusations which were dropped in August 2015 under the statutes of limitation.
Assange was avoiding being extradited to Sweden as he feared onward extradition to the US where he is wanted, under the Espionage Act over WikiLeaks releasing the Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning material, disclosing nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
The UK Metropolitan Police (MPS) announced Monday it would stop deploying officers, guarding the entrance to the embassy 24/7, which had cost US$17 million over three years. “The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the Embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him. However, it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence,” it said in a statement.

Ambassador Took Police Removal as Threat
However, it has now emerged that officials at the embassy were told of the intention to stop round-the-clock covert surveillance in August. Documents seen by BuzzFeed show that UK Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire visited the embassy on August 13 and spoke to the ambassador, Carlos Ortiz.
Following the meeting Swire said: “Ecuador must recognize that its decision to harbor Mr Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice. As a result, some of the serious sexual allegations against him will now expire.
“It is completely unacceptable that the British taxpayer has had to foot the bill for this abuse of diplomatic relations.”
“I want to make clear that as an allegation of rape remains outstanding, the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden.
“I have instructed our Ambassador in Quito to reiterate to Ecuador that the continuing failure to expedite the Swedish Prosecutor’s interview, and to bring this situation to an end, is being seen as a growing stain on the country’s reputation.”
Notes from the meeting, by embassy officials say: “The pressure of budget spending and what will be spent in the next five years is a concern in view of the politics of austerity that the UK government has adopted because of the economic crisis affecting the country.”

Source: sputniknews.com

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Sweden and Ecuador to begin Julian Assange talks next week

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Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Sweden will begin talks with Ecuador about Julian Assange on Monday, after Stockholm moved to break the deadlock over five-year-old rape allegations against him.

Sweden initially rejected a demand by Ecuador that the two countries establish a formal agreement on judicial cooperation before Swedish prosecutors could interrogate the WikiLeaks founder in Ecuador’s embassy in London, saying it did not negotiate bilateral treaties.

But this month the government agreed to talks specifically to address the stalemate over Assange, who claimed asylum in the embassy in 2012.

Two women made allegations against Assange five years ago in Stockholm, but no charges were brought because the prosecutor said she was unable to interrogate him. Assange says he had no choice but to seek asylum as Sweden declined to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges if he travelled to Stockholm.

The political intervention by Sweden marks a new development in the case. Swedish politicians have, with very few exceptions, insisted they must not interfere, saying it is a purely judicial matter.

“We have agreed to what the Ecuadorians asked for,” said Cecilia Riddselius, the Swedish justice ministry official responsible for the case. “It was a political decision to have this discussion.

“Normally ministers cannot interfere in individual cases, it is part of our legal system, this is a strict rule. At the same time, it is under the competence of the government to enter into agreements with other states. A decision was taken to actually raise it to the level of the cabinet.”

Riddselius said the state secretary, Anne Linde, would open the negotiations on Monday on behalf of the justice ministry. The justice ministry’s director general for international affairs, Anna-Karin Svensson, the foreign ministry’s director general for legal affairs, Anders Rönquist, and Riddselius herself would also be involved. She said Ecuador’s under-secretary of state Férnando Yepez Lasso would lead the talks for Ecuador.

Ecuador’s embassy in Stockholm declined to comment, but said the makeup of its delegation was still being discussed.

“We do not normally enter into bilateral agreements and encourage states to enter multilateral ones instead,” Riddselius said. “But considering this specific case and our willingness to move the case forward, we are open to discuss this. It will be a general agreement but we hope it will be applicable to the Assange case.”

Sexual assault accusations against Assange, who has not been formally charged with any crime, expired this month under Sweden’s statute of limitations. In March Swedish prosecutors had pledged to interrogate Assange in London while the allegations were still current.

Assange condemned the “incompetence” of Swedish authorities in failing to meet this deadline after he consistently demanded that prosecutors interview him in London so he could protest his innocence. The outstanding rape allegation can be prosecuted until August 2020.

The UK accuses Ecuador of preventing the proper course of justice by granting Assange asylum in London and is frustrated at the mounting costs of policing the embassy.

As recently as July, Sweden turned down a request from the UN to consider a guarantee that political refugees wanted for questioning would not face extradition to a third country.

Riddselius said that in her 20 years at the justice ministry she had never encountered a bilateral agreement of the kind that would be negotiated on Monday. “It is new ground, very unusual, it is something we try to avoid,” she said.

The negotiations would be complex, she said, and it was impossible to say how long they might take. She said Sweden had drafted an agreement and respected Ecuador’s need to examine it thoroughly and propose changes.

Source: The Guardian

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Swedish prosecutors drop Assange sexual assault probe

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assang-chargeSwedish prosecutors said on Thursday they had dropped a sexual assault probe against Julian Assange because the time limit on the case had expired, AFP reported.

Some of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder — who has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition — have reached their statute of limitations after five years. “Now that the statue of limitations has expired on certain offences, I am obliged to drop part of the investigation,” prosecutor Marianne Ny said, adding she still wanted to question the Australian on a more serious rape claim.

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Assange! Swedish court sets hearing date as whistleblower turns 43

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A Swedish court has set the date for the Assange “rape case” hearing for July 16. The announcement comes as Twitter is bombarded with happy birthday wishes to the WikiLeaks founder, who turned 43 on Thursday, BORlT39CYAA-rOyhis second year at the Ecuadorean embassy.

The public hearing at Stockholm district court will be the first legal move in the case since the WikiLeaks founder requested asylum in the South-American country’s embassy in 2012.

However, it is more than likely that in two weeks from now the hearing will kick off without the defendant.

Julian Assange, now 43, is still at the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital, and showing no signs of getting ready to travel to Stockholm. Should he leave the embassy – even to greet his fans who came to the embassy with happy birthday banners – the whistleblower will be arrested and extradited to Sweden.

Since Swedish prosecutors do not consider the possibility of questioning the WikiLeaks founder in London, Stockholm district court extended Assange’s invitation to come to Sweden for the hearing.

The invitation for Assange was sent to an “address unknown”, the Guardian reported. There are valid reasons, the court said, why he may not attend the hearing, like public transport, sudden illness, or unforeseen circumstances.

If Assange has no good reason not to attend, he was advised to arrive on time and “clear your pockets of metal objects and put them in the plastic bins provided”, the newspaper cited the court’s letter to the whistleblower.

His legal team argued that restrictions of “fundamental freedoms” since the allegations were made in 2010 are unreasonable and disproportionate, but the prosecutor disagreed saying that confinement in the embassy was self-imposed and “cannot be equated with detention”, The Guardian reports.

“In our opinion, when assessing proportionality, only the time [detained] for questioning in the English courts should be taken into account,” the Guardian cited prosecutors Marianne Ny and Ingred Isgren. They pointed out that Assange was arrested for just 10 days in December 2010.

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