MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
UK to protest to Ecuador for harboring Assange; policing the embassy has cost 18.8m dollars
The UK is to make a formal protest to the government of Ecuador over the country's decision to “harbor” Julian Assange, the Foreign Office has said. The Wikileaks co-founder sought asylum at London's Ecuadorean embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesGood hope he stays in there until 2020 and then gets arrested and sentenced for skipping bail.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 09:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/08/why-wont-julian-assange-condemn-ecuadors-spying-software/
Seems one's principles can be ignored when it suits one. It's all about the evil west and not China, Russia or Ecuador.
Love it. This guy will go down as a footnote in history at best. Just like his failure of a political party in Australia already has.
Assange is all about Assange. He can rot there until 2020. :) It is worth every penny of tax-payers money because the bigger picture is that every law-breaker will find some idiot country's Embassy to hole up in and evade the law. The example has to be made.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 10:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0Can't understand why UK just doesn't break off diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 12:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We could then confiscate the former embassy and sell it off to pay Police costs.
Couldn't care less whether Assange vacates with the rest of them and flies back to Ecuador.
Definitely no more UK or European foreign aid to Ecuador.
So the UK makes a political decision to post cops outside the embassy then wants Ecuador to pay for it??
Aug 14th, 2015 - 12:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Would they go to all this trouble if it wasn't politically motivated?
Why can't the Swedish prosecutor fly to the embassy and conduct the interview there like Assange first proposed?
Or a Skype call could clear this up.
Wow what article did you read Klingon? The one written for Argentineans?
Aug 14th, 2015 - 01:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The UK isn't asking for Ecuador to pay.
Politically motivated? Did Assange rape someone because of their political beliefs?
Sweden can't actually prosecute him outside Sweden.
Assange is a fugitive. Maybe he is innocent, however that doesn't change the fact that he is a fugitive.
A hypocritical fugitive.
As a UK taxpayer I would like Ecuador to pay either directly or indirectly ....as long as they pay.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 01:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't see the point of continuing with facade of diplomatic relations and would like to see our diplomats withdrawn and their diplomats escorted to Heathrow Airport.
Maybe the cops could be put to better use keeping the hordes of Africans and other worthless immigrants out.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 01:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But the US has the UK under it's arm on this on.
@7 I don't think a couple of bobbies round the clock is causing that much drain on man power.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 02:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Try again.
so funny that the uk is now concerned for sexual attacks...LOL.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0they have protected sexual abusers and promoted sexual abuse for decades, but now they want to imprison assange, who clearly had nothing to do with anything.
“1,400 investigated in child sex abuse inquiry, including politicians”
“The sex abusers guarding Britain’s most vulnerable children”
clearly they want to imprison assange because he has said the truth about british armed forces:
“Britain’s armed forces stand accused of torture and murder, perpetrated in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The scale of the abuses involved cannot be attributed to a few “rogue” individuals, or covered up by the routine excuse that Britain simply got “too close” to the United States and is guilty only by association. They present prima facie evidence for war crimes charges.
Revelations regarding Afghanistan focus on the documents released by WikiLeaks, listing 21 British attacks on civilians, including children”
@9 Twit. We investigate sex abuse allegations where less developed countries let it go on unpunished. You honestly think it is not happening in your country? Enabler.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 03:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We don't want to imprison Assange. We want to extradite him at the request of Sweden.
You are really off form today.
10 elaina
Aug 14th, 2015 - 04:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0you are either too naive or too brainwashed or too indoctrinated or not too bright or all the aforementioned at the same time.
read and learn:
“UK police report 50 years of Savile sex abuse
Authorities allege TV star Jimmy Savile committed more than 200 sexual crimes, including rape, between 1955 and 2009.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/01/2013111102225627530.html
only in england...yuk
@Paul,
Aug 14th, 2015 - 04:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What is your obsession with Jimmy Saville? Saville's dead, Rolf Harris is in prison, Janner is in court. The Children's Act (1989), ChildLine (1986) and the wholesale change in Child Protection policy in the UK over the 90s predated the deluge of allegations that wiped out the credibility of the Catholic church in the UK, Ireland and North America in the early noughties.
Still, this is all irrelevant to Assange who is simply to be deported to Sweden because of a perfectly legal arrest warrant. If he is innocent then he should just have gone to Sweden and given his interview. Instead, he has subjected himself to three years of effective house arrest with another 5-years still to come. The money doesn't bother me, we would have to have officers on diplomatic protection anyway so a couple more is no big deal. I'm not sure why the UK have even raised the issue, it isn't a problem for us - while for those who dislike Assange, they are perefectly happy to hear of him sleeping in an Ecuadorian female toilet for 3-years. It's more like a bizarre David Blaine endurance stunt than anything meaningful. He's called a few press conferences to make a big announcement but then doesn't announce anything - it's all getting a bit sad and embarrassing. The Ecuadorians have just replaced yet another ambassador so clearly they are wishing they hadn't bothered, but that's their problem.
God bless Ecuador, it took brass balls for such a country to do the right thing.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 05:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am impressed by how little you know about the development of the Assange case and yet are able to condemn him.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 05:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A case of guilty until proved innocent.
2010 August: Rape claim against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange withdrawn
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/7957882/Rape-claim-against-Wikileaks-founder-Julian-Assange-withdrawn.html
Before you make up your mind, read these:
Fallet Assange: Uppgifter raderas om och om igen (Assange case: data erased again and again)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/7957882/Rape-claim-against-Wikileaks-founder-Julian-Assange-withdrawn.html
Sex, lögner, inga videoband och mer lögner. Falska anklagelser i fallet Assange.
(Sex, lies, no videotape and more lies. False accusations in the Assange case)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/7957882/Rape-claim-against-Wikileaks-founder-Julian-Assange-withdrawn.html
4 but then, he would still not be in custody
Aug 14th, 2015 - 05:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Be cheaper to fall out with Ecuador...break off diplomatic relations for a couple of days...drag him out and then restore diplomatic relations....simple.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 06:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@11 you are either too naive or too brainwashed or too indoctrinated or not too bright or all the aforementioned at the same time to realise this is going on in your country but you don't do anything about it.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@14 How do you know what we know about the Assange case - it has been extensively discussed here many time.
He is guilty of jumping bail and subject to an extradition order. That is the beginning and end of the UK involvement; “Not our stone, not our shoe”. If he had the balls to face the Swedish authorities he could prove his innocence. The rest is just bullshit he has put around to excuse his behaviour and increase his publicity.
And, yes, I have studied the case extensively.
The God Assange has made it known he is very unhappy he has not had his day in court!
Aug 14th, 2015 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I wonder why he holed up in the tea cupboard of the Embassy then?
Should have put a cap in his arse at the start and saved all the money.
Julian Assange would be extradited to finish his days in an U.S. prison the minute his convenient trial in Sweden ended, whatever its outcome.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 06:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Assange's punishment would send a stern warning to any aspiring whistle blower around the world, and all those cozy backroom deals in the bowels of higher powers would continue unfettered.
If hypocrisy and conflict of interest was not so widespread, whistle blowers would receive protection so that others would be encouraged to speak out.
Such thing would not be palatable to most MP posters judging by the above posts.
Thanks Ecuador!
@19 You naive old man, Assange cause untold damage spilling secret indiscriminately. You sit there under the protection of the Canadian government and the intelligence services but applaud giving away vital information to the enemy that compromises the very security you enjoy. Of course there has to be another level of negotiation, politics is just the window dressing of what really happens with international relations.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 06:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Assange has used the myth that he will be extradited to the US as a way to avoid facing the Swedish authorities. The reality is “Sweden’s extradition agreement with the United States, signed in 1961 and updated in 1983, prohibits extradition on the basis of ”a political offense“ or ”an offense connected with a political offense.” . He is just playing the victim to get publicity.
You are way too old to act like a teenage rebel jumping on any bandwagon you think is sticking two fingers up at authority.
America should send in delta force.???????????
Aug 14th, 2015 - 07:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0then forget him,....
The asylum afforded to Assange is not even recognised in Europe and other civilised regions of the world. In spite of this the embassy in London is deemed to be Ecuadorian territory and thus the British authorities are prevented from entering the premises and arresting the alleged sex offender.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 07:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Ecuador is just playing a game and Britain and/or Sweden should not relax and allow Assange to leave his confinement.
Gas leaks happen all the time, in that part of London.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0just an explosive thought.
@4. It's amusing, although sad, that people like you lack so many attributes. Do you think (?) things would be better if you, and those like you, could manage things like intelligence, morals, principles, reason? Let's start from the top. Ass(hole)ange started by taking advantage of the British judicial system. Over the relevant period, the US didn't take the opportunity to request extradition, nor did it deploy a snatch squad or snipers. When Ass(hole)ange adopted the argie legal approach of running away, he could have tried somewhere other than Ecuador. Ecuador granted him diplomatic asylum. This is a status unrecognised by anywhere outside south america. Proper action is held back by just a few things. The supposed inviolability of diplomatic mission premises, British regard for the law and the useful catalogue of British offences he is racking up. Starting with breaching bail conditions, then being a fugitive, criminal diversion of public funds, subject to a European Arrest Warrant and engaging in activities contrary to a court order.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 07:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's move to your fatuous comments. How is posting police constables outside premises where a known criminal fugitive is hiding political? It's legally motivated, dickhead. Do you have any concept of legal procedural requirements? Doesn't work out too well for argieland. What's a good defence to accusations of cover-ups? In argieland, you shoot the prosecutor and then spend time slagging off investigators.
Why can't the Swedish prosecutor fly to England? Of course she can. Except that the Ecuadorians demanded all sorts of conditions. No doubt prompted by smart ass(hole)ange. Ever figured out how a Swedish prosecutor goes about arresting a fugitive in the Ecuadorian embassy building, snapping on the handcuffs on and leading the criminal outside? I've thought of a perfect crime with which to prosecute Ass(hole)ange. The suspected enabling of the murder of any number of people. Let him prove he hasn't.
9 paulcedron II
Aug 14th, 2015 - 08:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“so funny that the uk is now concerned for sexual attacks...LOL.they have protected sexual abusers and promoted sexual abuse for decades” You where saying!
Child abuser in Argentina has sentence reduced as judges rule six-year-old victim 'was gay' and had been traumatised through earlier abuse
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/child-abuser-in-argentina-has-sentence-reduced-as-judges-rule-sixyearold-victim-was-gay-and-had-been-traumatised-through-earlier-abuse-10261110.html
Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina
“We have examined news and court archives to identify 43 clergy in Argentina publicly accused of sexually abusing minors and vulnerable adults..”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/child-abuser-in-argentina-has-sentence-reduced-as-judges-rule-sixyearold-victim-was-gay-and-had-been-traumatised-through-earlier-abuse-10261110.html
Argentine Judges Blasted for Another Sex Abuse Ruling
The judges justified their decision by writing that in lower social classes, “sexual relations are accepted at early ages.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/child-abuser-in-argentina-has-sentence-reduced-as-judges-rule-sixyearold-victim-was-gay-and-had-been-traumatised-through-earlier-abuse-10261110.html
Hundreds of Argentine kids separated from parents after sex abuse
For more information see: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/child-abuser-in-argentina-has-sentence-reduced-as-judges-rule-sixyearold-victim-was-gay-and-had-been-traumatised-through-earlier-abuse-10261110.html
UK should stop paying. Leave the gent there.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 08:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ 17 ElaineB: “@14 How do you know what we know about the Assange case - it has been extensively discussed here many time.” + “And, yes, I have studied the case extensively.”
Aug 14th, 2015 - 09:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0- in which case you have a problem with your sources.
If you read the swedish text re. the links above, you will find out, that Assange had consesual sex with two women. The one who later claimed that she had been raped wrote some nice things about him the following day. When she realized he had had consensual sex with another woman a couple of days later, she contacted the woman, decided she had been raped, and deleted her previous nice words about Assange - but you can't delete from the internet, your scribbling stays in caches and way-back. This was why the charges were dropped. Some day later they were reinstated. Give NSA a kiss.
I'll give the NSA a kiss.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 09:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As an Aussie I'm glad that the fear of the NSA has kept Assange locked in a broom cupboard for several years. This guy is a failure as a father, a failure as a politician and a failure as a cause célèbre.
I can think of no better punishment that his current predicament. Ecuador's human rights and media suppression is despicable and every day that Assange fails to say something about it is another day where he becomes more irrelevant.
Enri........this will happen because you know this? First off....if the USA wants him to pay.....when the White House turns over....and anyone will be a stronger CIC......Assange's days will be numbered.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 10:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0W
Elaine is right.....you say all of this under the protections of the free world you criticize. I will happily donate mondy....and many more people would as well to the Brits.......but I hardly think they need it. In the meantime.........I hope he suffers respiratory mold spores in ghe little dingy apartment.
I wonder if they bring women in for him to force himself on........at least he'd be paying to have his way.
Enri do you still have your beard?
it seems that all this twat swire does the whole fucking day is to protest, whine and moan.
Aug 14th, 2015 - 10:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0the funny thing is that the whole fucking world does not give a shite for him.
what a loser...
but what did he expect with that face?
lol
30 Pablo Think Voice
Aug 14th, 2015 - 11:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The story is not about Swire, it's about a narcissist, Assange.
“It seems that all this twat ... does the whole fucking day is to protest, whine and moan.
the funny thing is that the whole fucking world does not give a shite for him.
what a loser... ”
You losers are all the same.
“it seems that all this twat swire does the whole fucking day is to protest, whine and moan.”
Aug 15th, 2015 - 02:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0Wow coming from Argentinean that elects politicians that have been doing the same day in day out for decades over the “Malvinas”, that would have to rank as an Assange level of hypocrisy.
@27 I have never said Assange is guilty of any crime in Sweden. He has been accused and the authorities need to investigate. Assange exhausted the legal process in the UK and jumped bail - costing numerous people their money - and holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy. It was a publicity stunt that backfired for him but beyond that is the legal process that has to be followed.
Aug 15th, 2015 - 07:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0the policing of the ambassy WAS TO STOP Assange ESCAPING.
Aug 15th, 2015 - 11:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0so it is normal that the British taxpayers should pay for the bill!!!!!
what do you expect from a justice system in a country that refuses to extradite Basque ETA terrorist
who killed 12 officers and injuries so many civilians....and worse of all
HE ENTERED BRITAIN WITH A FALSE PASSPORT FOOLING THE BRITS... and now the judge says:
” that he (terrorist) should be allowed to live in peace” DISGRACEFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!
@34
Aug 15th, 2015 - 11:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Please excuse my ignorance concerning this matter but who exactly is this ETA terrorist you describe and perhaps you would be kind enough to supply a link so that I can read all about it for myself.
kind regards
@35..It's an on going extradition case that Aussiearseshine thinks is somehow relevant,
Aug 15th, 2015 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13145669
It was basically a fuck up by Spanish Authorities that let him go early from his 30 year sentence after 24 years. Seems like they are trumping up other charges to try and get him back to Spain via extradition as they can't get him back any other way. Just technicalities of the extradition process and Spanish incompetence.
Well well,
Aug 15th, 2015 - 06:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0this man certainly has stirred up a hornets nest, has he not.
*35
Aug 15th, 2015 - 09:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/26230/london-judge-refuses-to-extradite-eta-terrorist-to-spain
@38
Aug 15th, 2015 - 10:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thank you for the link.
I see your point.
However, your initial post was rather disingenuous as it failed to mention that this person had spent 24 years in prison and had been released, as far as I could see, within Spanish law and than realising the furore caused by his release the Spanish Government tried to 'move the goal posts' even though the said 'goal posts' had been removed by the European Court of Human Rights some two years earlier.
I feel it is highly unlikely that under those circumstances any country with an independent judiciary would extradite him
39 I agree with you! The Spanish legal system has failed and this terrorrist should
Aug 15th, 2015 - 11:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0not be judged twice for the crime he has commited.no matter how horrible.
But how does this individual get into the UK with a false passport and the judge
(judge Riddle..yep! Riddle) rejects charges against him, now this individual
is not an illegal immigrant, this individual is a murderer a dangerous
S.O.A.B and judge riddle let´s him go free with no prison sentence
for carrying false documentation!!!! yet... kambala Alphonse ( an illegal
immigrant is jailed FOR A YEAR AND WAS DEPORTED FROM THE UK!
in a recent legal case in the UK!!
...now that is a RIDDLE!!
google; (Pillar- community-jailed-year.using -forged.......)
40 SpanishSunshine/Marcos
Aug 16th, 2015 - 12:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0You are muddling all the cases together.
This is about Assange - UK is enforcing its own laws, and respecting their extradition agreement with Sweden, where applicable.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!