WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may lose asylum in London embassy as impasse ‘comes to a head’
Julian Assange has been living in Ecuador’s London embassy since June 2012, hoping to avoid US extradition for publishing military secrets on his infamous website
The diplomatic impasse over Julian Assange’s six-year stay in Ecuador’s London embassy is coming to a head, a source close to the WikiLeaks founder said on Monday, after media reports the South American country would rescind his political asylum.
Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean embassy since June 2012 when he successfully sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes which he has always denied.
Those allegations have since been dropped but Assange fears he would be arrested by British police should he leave the embassy for breaching bail conditions.
He believes that would pave the way for extradition to the United States for publishing a huge cache of US diplomatic and military secrets on the WikiLeaks website.
Speculation about the Australian-born Assange’s future has grown this month after The Sunday Times newspaper said senior officials from Ecuador and Britain were in discussions about how to remove him from the embassy after revocation of his asylum.