Sweden asks to meet Julian Assange inside Ecuador embassy

[inanna]

Source: The Guardian

Monday 20 June 2016 19.35 BST

Ecuador has received a formal request from the Swedish authorities to interview Julian Assange, inside its London embassy, in a potential breakthrough to the long-running saga.

The WikiLeaks founder, 44, is wanted for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation in Sweden, which he has always denied. He has been living inside Ecuador’s UK mission for four years in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, saying he fears he would then be transferred to the US to face political charges for orchestrating leaks of diplomatic cables.

Ecuador has been asking throughout Assange’s stay that he be interviewed inside the embassy, and said it welcomed the apparent Swedish “change of heart, and signs of a new political will”.

Ecuador’s foreign minister, Dr Guillaume Long, said on Monday, however, that the country may require fresh legal assurances before it allows Swedish prosecutors access.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/20/sweden-meet-julian-assange-inside-ecuador-embassy-wikileaks

[laserhaas]

1. Very interesting

[NWCorona]

5. Definitely!

[hack89]

2. So will Ecuador turn him over if they decide to arrest him?

They could find themselves in a tight spot.

[longship]

3. Well, according to what the post says, apparently not.

Otherwise why would they give him four years of immunity?

[hack89]

8. Then any interview is a waste of time. nt

[JackRiddler]

10. How convenient.

You must know the verdict in advance!

[hack89]

11. The prosecutor has stated several times that she will arrest him

It is not some big mystery. That is why he ran in the fist place, first in Sweden and then in England.

[Else You Are Mad]

4. Remember...

Assange is an Australian citizen, not an American. So, his case is very much unlike either Mannings or Snowden. Thus, his trumped up rape case (look into the facts of what really happened) to get him extradited to the US is tantamount to what we did to those in gitmo.

Just saying...

[treestar]

6. They probably just want to close their file

and are getting sick of him.

Even if he'd been found guilty he could be out of jail by now perhaps.

[2cannan]

7. Very curious considering the announcements he's been making recently. nt