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Julian Assange requests asylum in Ecuador, foreign minister says
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has formally requested asylum in Ecuador, the country's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said.
Patino, speaking at a press conference in Quito, Ecuador, read from a statement that Assange was currently at Ecuador's embassy in London, England, where he formally requested asylum. Patino read a statement to reporters at a news conference in Quito. He took no questions.
The request comes after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Thursday dismissed an application filed by an attorney for the WikiLeaks founder who was seeking to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden.
The application was Assange's last option in the British courts. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service has previously said if the court dismissed Assange's appeal, his only further remedy is to apply immediately to the European Court of Human Rights, and Assange's attorneys have vowed to do so.
The appeal itself would be a rarity, as the court's decisions are supposed to be final in Britain.
Assange has been fighting for a year and a half against being sent to Sweden for questioning about accusations of sexual abuse. Two women accused him in August 2010 of sexually assaulting them during a visit to Sweden in connection with a WikiLeaks release of internal U.S. military documents.
WikiLeaks' work is not at issue in the extradition matter or the Swedish allegations against Assange.
Assange has not been charged with a crime, but Swedish prosecutors want to question him about allegations of "unlawful coercion and sexual misconduct including rape," according to a Supreme Court document.
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You are the desease and the traitor you Rethuglican hack
YEAAAAAA!!! I'm glad he is able to find a way out of these charges that surely the US was behind.
Hopefully, he and Wikileaks will continue to prosper for the good of the entire world. Open and transparent governments are what are needed by the people and for the people. Not what the US government has become, an evil empire hiding behind what it claims to be "National Security". May the First Ammendment prevail! Home to the once free people of the United States.
Hear hear
Then you go live in Equador. Tell me how many rights you have and how much better your quality of life is.
This guy thinks he's so important. Please just go away...
Good Luck Assange you might receive a good welcome. I certainly hope the Ecuadorian government helps keep you out of our greedy clutches.
Interesting development. Why bail out if innocent? Extradition sought is for questioning only.
Hmmmm!
Wow, I never thought this could be possible considering he is not an American citizen, thus he is not a traitor. One day one of us will expose China for the things they hide. When that person is made to flee I wonder how many of us will remember this day?
is ecuador a free country? i'd like to go somewhere free too. i'll have to check it out.
Hey snowdogg did you even read the article ? He's at Ecuador's embassy in London, England" What a dip.
Assange is already guilty of everything. He hung out the US dirty laundry and embarrassed the heck out of Wahsington politicians. That is what he has done wrong
Truth speakers are usually hated at first. The US government hates him for a reason. He told the people the truth about the Iraq war. It was a war built completely on lies and deceptions forced on the American public by our own government. Wikileaks just got the lies on paper to release the evidence. The US government hates it's lies being revealed.
I am a Libertarian for the record too. So no, I am not a Liberal.
Here are some lies and deceptions revealed by Wikileaks.
The number of Iraqi civilians deaths is greater than the numbers publicly reported by the United States. Most of those deaths came at the hands of other Iraqis.
Iran was involved in the training, supplying and support of Iraqi Shiite militias. They may have even engaged with U.S. troops directly.
Detainees were treating with shocking amounts of violence. The abuse was so feared that U.S. troops sometimes threatened prisoners with a transfer to Iraqi police units, where they would have most certainly been treated worse.
Judge for yourself. Go Google it all. Read it for real. Don't be a Sheep.
He needs to be Hung.
How do you know he's not?
This guy is a true hero. He told the truth and now they are after him for that. I hope he goes to Ecuador and keeps on leaking all the American lies.
This guys is not a hero, he is a theif.
You can't be serious! This guy is nothing but an egomaniacal, self-agrandising criminal. The Brits should have helped him to have an "accident" while they had him in custody, and then the world would be rid of one more piece of self-righteous trash.
He is a megamalomanic. If he ever held power he would be a complete dictator and do the EXACT OPPOSITE of whay he does now with information.
It looks so hilariously pathetic to watch the guilty run from the law and beg for asylum.. "Somebody save me". lol Like a rat trying to escape a sinking ship this guy is desparate to avoid faceing the women he apparently assualted. Reminds me of the infamous low speed chase in a white bronco...minus the bronco.
This guy dump secrets on the internet about major countries and he seek asylum in Ecuador. He would be safer in jail the rest of his life. Stupid move. I say let him go there, bet he never makes it and he will never be found.
Personally, I do not know this man Mr. Assange. Is he a bad person, is he a good person? .. Which one of YOU know him personally to make that judgement? .. Is he a rat? .. Is he a sellout? .. These are questions that none of you are asking, yet you feel free to condemn the man. I think that in it's own right is an example of ignorance on those who judge him so easily.
Obviously, he has dispensed information that was not supposed to be public, and OB-viously it made a few people or groups mad. This is OBviously why he is running his rear off to stay out of jail. Did the information he dispense, SAVE lives, or kill them? ... If the information he is dispensing is saving lives, then why is he public enemy number 1? ..
None of you question anything anymore... have we all become such an ignorant society in all the world?
The short answer to your final question is "Yes, we have."
That's a funny post. You first pose as someone making no value judgment, then you destroy your pretense of objectivity by openly aligning yourself with Assange.
only fugitives run, real men stand up for themselves and face the music
You do not have to know someone personally to know if they are doing things they shouldn't be doing, and in the process, harming potentially huge numbers of individuals. Did you know Nixon personally? Did you know Charles Manson personally? Sometimes common sense is enough for you to be able to determine if a person is right or wrong, and in this case, Assange is totally wrong.
If there was ever an olympics for the biggest D-Bag, this guy would win gold.
Well said!!
He was set up by you know who........