Saturday, September 22nd 2012 - 05:24 UTC

Ecuador suggests transferring Assange to its embassy in Sweden so he can be questioned

Ecuador proposed on Friday transferring Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from its embassy in London where he has taken refuge to that in Sweden where he is a suspect of sex related crimes. However this depends on Britain and there has been no official reaction to the proposal.

Patiño made the proposal and expects to meet with Foreign Secretary Hague in New York

Foreign minister Ricardo Patiño told reporters that there are several possibilities to resolve the standoff with Britain over Assange, including “that his statement be taken in our embassy in London or that Ecuador get authorization to transfer him, if necessary, to our embassy in Sweden so that the case can proceed there with the protection of Ecuador and meeting the needs of Swedish justice”.

Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London since June 19, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations. Assange claims the Swedish sex case is part of plot to make him stand trial in the United States over his work with Wikileaks, which has published large troves of secret US documents. Sweden and Washington reject the claim.

Ecuador granted the Wikileaks founder political asylum on Aug. 15, but British authorities have repeatedly warned they will arrest him if he steps foot outside the diplomatic mission.

Patiño said he was hopeful a negotiated solution could be found for the case, although added that Ecuador does not discard appealing to international courts if discussions with London do not prosper.

Only last week Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said that Patiño would be attending the UN General Assembly and “expects to meet with Foreign Secretary William Hague and continue the dialogue on the Assange case”.

Correa said that in his opinion the whole issue could be solved once Sweden gives guarantees that Assange won’t be handed to the US or that the Swedish prosecution questions the Australian at the embassy in London, “it’s perfectly feasible, and we can then overcome the dispute; why doesn’t the Swedish prosecutor want to do so, who knows”.

Anyhow Correa said Ecuador “has never closed the doors to dialogue, we will continue to dialogue, but what we will never do is negotiate human rights, they are nonnegotiable”. The Ecuadorean president confirmed he will not be attending the UN assembly.
 

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1 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:54 am Report abuse
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

I love it... :-D
2 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 08:13 am Report abuse
Just read this story in the News Paper. What arrogance! of cours the British Government is going to allow him to transfer to their Swedish Embassy, they will just forget the small matter of him being a wanted man here for breaching his bail and the small matter of them interfering in their host nations justice system. Oh and call me cynical, but does anyone think he would actually get off the plane in Stockholm. More likely refuel and head straight south!!!!!!
3 ElaineB (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 08:53 am Report abuse
Assange has outstayed his welcome again. : ) The Ecuadorians must have daily meetings on how to get rid of him. : )
4 briton (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 11:25 am Report abuse
Many ways to look at this,
1, it might be a good idea, it gets him away from the UK,
And relieves us of this rubbish, it has created,

2, they know they can’t get him from the British, so getting him transferred to Sweden; they will have more chance,

3, Ecuador has embarrassed herself, the help she thought she would get from South America has evaporated, and all the mouth and threats has now back fired,

4, they now want to save face, and to move it from Britain to Sweden.

5, they have no wish to fall out with great Britain,

Ah problems problems,.
.
5 Conqueror (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 11:53 am Report abuse
Funny. As I read it (elsewhere, not this article) Ecuador gave Assange “diplomatic” asylum. “Diplomatic” asylum doesn't exist anywhere outside of the Americas. The UK doesn't recognise “diplomatic” asylum.

In the meantime, Assange has created a prison for himself and locked himself in.

He has two options. He can surrender or he can stay where he is until he dies. No skin off our nose.
6 brucey-babe (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 12:27 pm Report abuse
Let him rot in the Ecuadorian Embassy, they wanted him, they can keep him and we have the patience to wait for his first footfall on British soil.
7 ChrisR (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 01:18 pm Report abuse
The answer to the 'Assange' problem is a 0.38 revolver with one cartridge in it and placed on the table in front of him.

Ahhh! I see a flaw in my logic. Assange has no honour.
8 Marcos Alejandro (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 01:56 pm Report abuse
American poodle(Britain) still failing to extradite Assange to Guantanamo.
9 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 02:31 pm Report abuse
Must be driving them up the wall in that small flat, meanwhile back to all that lovely overtime for the bobbies outside, can not see them being in any hurry for him to come out. Nice healthy mortgage payments all round, maybe the odd new car here and there or a nice overseas holiday for the wife and kids. Stay put Julian, your doing wonders for the economic welfare of a very small number of members of our society. As for you Mr Patino, wind your neck in and stop trying to screw up a nice little earner!!
10 wangito (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 03:05 pm Report abuse
Like so many things in the Latino world.
First do, than think.
Than, Why for godsake did we do that.
11 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 03:10 pm Report abuse
Your right. I honestly do not think they thought this through and now they appear to be scrambling for a way out without losing face. Only a matter of time before they realise there is not one and the FO are not going to budge a millimetre on this.
12 ElaineB (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 03:53 pm Report abuse
@12 Whilst we tried hard to offer Ecuador a way out of this mess, the minute Correa tried to use the situation for personal political gain and blatantly lied, we have taken the hard-line. The British government takes the rule of law seriously and there will be no bending of the rules. Assange exhausted the legal system and jumped bail.
13 bushpilot (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 04:36 pm Report abuse
Psssst. Julian! Hey, Julian!

How's that house arrest working out over there at the Ecuadoran embassy?

Are you learning any Spanish yet?

You hero you!
14 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:14 pm Report abuse
While he is in there, he could make himself useful and redecorate the place, hang some wall paper, paint, least he could do.
15 Marcos Alejandro (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:46 pm Report abuse
12 ElaineB “The British government takes the rule of law seriously”

Like in Iraq?...
Smart girls open their mind, easy girls open their...
16 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:55 pm Report abuse
@15 M.AL ejandro

Is that the best you can do, Marcos?

Very weak - you are like PrvtesHunter - nothing you can argue so you resort to mindless vulgar rants, and repeat irrelevant nonsense about unrelated issues.

You represent Argentina, well.
17 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:56 pm Report abuse
What the hell does Iraq have to do with the allegation of rape and the execution of an International Arrest Warrant?
18 Marcos Alejandro (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:03 pm Report abuse
17 RC
Elaine said ”“The British government takes the rule of law seriously”
I say, only when is covenient to them.
19 reality check (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:08 pm Report abuse
And how are the two connected? Saddam Hussein try to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy and apply for Political asylum did he
20 ElaineB (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:10 pm Report abuse
It is a different government now. And do try to grow up @18, you make yourself look very silly with your teenage boy insults.
21 Marcos Alejandro (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:15 pm Report abuse
Yes, It is a different government now....Smart girls open their mind, easy girls...
22 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:48 pm Report abuse
@21 Marcos
“.Smart girls open their mind, easy girls...”

So, what is that supposed to mean?

You seem to like that sexual analogy - repeating it again?

Making an incoherent, incomplete, sexual reference does NOT make a point - it is a childish, irrelevant, empty comment. Hardly clever.

give up - the Ekkies have shown themselves to be fools, abandoned by their 'supporters'. :-D
23 agent999 (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 07:15 pm Report abuse
@22

He sounds like a 12year old in a school playground
24 briton (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 07:41 pm Report abuse
8, so silly,
trying to acuse us of something we have no intention of doing,
changing subjects again.

at least we dont crawl up the backsides of everybody you bumb into, thanking them for their invisable support.

you will be all alone, so alone and lonley with no help.

still,
if only you had a light switch,
China perhaps .lol.
25 stick up your junta (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 07:47 pm Report abuse
@ 21
Your a bit like Finbarr Saunders but not so funny
26 Captain Poppy (#) Sep 22nd, 2012 - 11:23 pm Report abuse
Conqueror...correction, we do not recognize diplomatic asylum in the Unites States either, only south america signed on to the concept in the because copes were so common.
27 v for victory (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 12:49 am Report abuse
Don't worry Ecuador you have lots of strong South Am support... for what it's worth. :)
28 CJvR (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 08:42 am Report abuse
He he he!

Sounds as if the Ecuadorians have grown tired of Assange already, and it has only been a few weeks. Imagine how they will feel after 15 years...
29 reality check (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 09:56 am Report abuse
To be perfectly honest I feel for their consular staff. My definition of purgatory; being stuck in a ground floor flat wih Assange for hour after hour, day after day, week after week, listening to him harp on about “me, me, me.”
30 Englander (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 10:49 am Report abuse
Ecuador needs to understand its place, which is about two places above Argentina, Iran, Syria and North Korea.
As for Assange, he isn't going anywhere.
You people wanted him, now keep him.
31 aussie sunshine (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 12:35 pm Report abuse
Stay put Assange!! Your current home is better than Guantanamo prison!!
32 Conqueror (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 01:03 pm Report abuse
@8 The United Kingdom has no request from the United States for the extradition of Assange. In any event, Sweden got there first, so they get the first kick!
@15 Slugs open their mouths. How you doing, slug?
@18 But then, the argie government, and argies generally, NEVER take the rule of law seriously. Have you paid Repsol yet? You do remember the bit in your “constitution” that says you have to pay compensation BEFORE you nationalise a company, don't you?
@26 Difficult. www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b3823c.html indicates that is an OAS convention. The United States is a member of OAS. There is no statement that the USA neither signed nor ratified the convention. Note the “reservations”. Should the United States have put in a reservation? Perhaps you should check the Library of Congress!
33 LEPRecon (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 01:29 pm Report abuse
@31 - Aussie

It isn't whether Assange wants to stay put or not. It's about how long the Ecuadorians are willing to put up with him.

Cracks are beginning to show. Sooner or later Assange will be extradited to Sweden, where he will face the allegations of sexually assualting 2 women.

If the US want him, they can ask the Swedes for him, although they may have to wait until he has answered charges in the UK for breaching his bail conditions. All those people who believed in him and put up his bail money, are now counting the cost of that trust.

However, the US doesn't want Assange. I mean who would? This narcassitic man has done more to destroy the reputation of wikileaks than the US could've dreamed to do.

The longer he is running around spinning his wild fairy tales, which will be proved untrue, the more it hurts wikileaks, and its support is already falling away; mainly because of Assange and his egotistical belief that he is above the laws of mortal men.
34 Captain Poppy (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 02:25 pm Report abuse
Conqueror.....the USA did not sign nor ratify the 1954 OAS Convention of Diplomatic Asylum.

www.oas.org/juridico/english/sigs/a-46.html

From US State

www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/08/196663.htm

Now onto subject. I would not allow ja to leave to the embassy in Sweden, it's probably larger and much nicer. The ecuadorians went him out of their, what, 3 bedroom apartment that serves as a embassy? They all chose this bed, let them all lay in it. When the ambassador decides it is time for ja to face bail flight charges and the international warrant, ja will be out of there. The stink is rising, it will get to them.
35 Englander (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 03:15 pm Report abuse
And if Assange dies in the Ecuadorian Embassy how will they dispose of his corpse?
Do they have rights to the basement or will they just cremate him on the gas hob.
One thing's for sure I wouldn't be thinking of letting the Ecuadorian Embassy relocate to somewhere with a garden.
36 stick up your junta (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 03:31 pm Report abuse
Assange's diary if he puts it into print will be a blinding read Monday stayed in etc
37 agent999 (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 03:36 pm Report abuse
What is really funny is that with all the sophisticated surveillance/spook equipment that is available I am sure that the British know everything that is going on in the Ecuadorian apartment.
38 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 04:13 pm Report abuse
@Agent 999

I'm sure that every time JA has Chinese food delivered, he is checking the dumplings for hidden microphones. LOL

even then, it would be just looking for excitement - pretty monotonous sitting in a small flat alone ( no prostitutes want his business), ironically in the middle of a very exciting city.

How frustrating for him. How poetic!
39 bushpilot (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 04:30 pm Report abuse
Maybe Assange will get sick of where he is, and see no choice but to give himself up.

If he does, he'll do it with as big a “martrydom” splash as he can.

Is it possible one day he could sneak his way out of the embassy with help from outside?
40 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 23rd, 2012 - 07:20 pm Report abuse
@39 bush

“Is it possible one day he could sneak his way out of the embassy with help from outside?”

One would suppose so, but even if they did not get caught, the incident would be escalated from a minor irritation to a real Internationsl Incident.
The perpetrators and their nations would be making a huge political error
41 reality check (#) Sep 24th, 2012 - 08:41 am Report abuse
I've an idea, why don't they smuggle him out in their diplomatic bags! right leg on Tuesday, left leg on Wednesday, right arm on Thursday etc, etc. Us Brits would never suspect a thing.
42 British_Kirchnerist (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 01:57 am Report abuse
#12 You remind me of the character in Les Mis (I think), the police officer who spent 20 years hunting a man for stealing a loaf of bread. Your pointless prissy legalism is ridiculous, and probably insincere in any case
43 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 03:42 am Report abuse
@42 BS - Kirchnerist

Are you saying, his crime too trivial?
Are you saying it happened too long ago?
Are you saying it is not worth the effort to enforce the law?

-Assange did not steal a loaf of bread. It was not a crime of desperation to feed himself.
-He is accused of sexually assaulting 2 women.
-He is guilty of fleeing custody while granted bail (a privilege) because he feared losing his court case.
-Those who put up a bond for him, forfeited their money.
-He has attempted to embarrass and discredit the British, Swedish, and US governments for his own benefit, and damaged international relations

Hardly “ prissy legalism”!!

You're patronisingly dismissive. You have no argument.
44 Captain Poppy (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 10:05 am Report abuse
BK are you saying laws are meaningless and trivial now? Should the UK ignore jumping bail? international arrest warrant? Should Sweden ignore a woman's claim against ASSange?
When does a nation decide which laws to ignore and which to uphold?
45 reality check (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 10:18 am Report abuse
I think the time has come for a good hard look at the Lisbon Treaty, as it stands, it does not seem to be fit for purpose. The consulate authority of a foreign power, can interfering with the Domestic Judicial System of a host nation and not be in breach of the treaty.
46 Simon68 (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 05:09 pm Report abuse
Ecuador is in breach of Article III of the Diplomatic Asylum treaty of 1954 for giving asylum to a common criminal instead of a political asylee!!!!!
47 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 25th, 2012 - 09:01 pm Report abuse
Metro Police have intercepted a delivery of timbers and shovels destined for the Ecuadorian Embassy.
:-)
48 British_Kirchnerist (#) Sep 26th, 2012 - 11:14 am Report abuse
In the real world Britain could easily overlook the bail offence if it really wanted to come to an agreement with Ecuador; Sweeden's investigation can be accomodated alongside protection for Assange, for example by this latest Ecuadorian plan; the rule of law in general is necessary but most reasonable people would say some laws can be an ass, as DIckens put it; and wikileaks remains the elephant in the room...
49 ChrisR (#) Sep 26th, 2012 - 12:00 pm Report abuse
48 Blind_Scottie_Kirchnerist

I think the elephant's been shot.

It's like the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch, it's no more.
50 Troy Tempest (#) Sep 26th, 2012 - 05:50 pm Report abuse
@48 BS-K

“ wikileaks remains the elephant in the room...”

Wiki leaks is now irrelevant.

In the world of exposés, Assange himself, is fast becoming irrelevant too.

His self-imposed exile has sidelined him completely.

How much attention did his last “news”- release get?

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