At the moment the Ecuadorian Embassy in London is besieged by police and our Foreign Office has threatened to violate international law by revoking its Embassy status.
The reasoning - apparently - to remove the man inside for questioning related to two alleged minor sex offences in Sweden. The man however, has invited Swedish officials to question him on numerous occasions, which they have refused. Instead they took the unprecedented step of issuing a European Arrest Warrant against him, which resulted in his detention without charge or even police interview in the UK for nearly two years.
The reason that the man does not wish to return to Sweden? Sweden has an extradition policy with extremely favourable terms for the USA. Any person in Swedish custody may be requested for transfer to the USA at any time with little recourse. The man as I'm sure you're aware is Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks and also a man that several prominent US politicians have named as someone they would like to be "disappeared".
Ecuador understand his plight and as such have granted him political asylum. The UK however refuse to allow him safe passage to Ecuador; if he so much as steps outside he will be arrested and shipped off to the US, via Sweden.
It sickens me to see such a flagrant and cynical disregard for legal procedure being carried out by my own government at the behest of the US.
Sorry to rant but I find the actions of my government, along with the US and Sweden abhorrent and unworthy of the worst dictators that we claim to despise.
The reasoning - apparently - to remove the man inside for questioning related to two alleged minor sex offences in Sweden. The man however, has invited Swedish officials to question him on numerous occasions, which they have refused. Instead they took the unprecedented step of issuing a European Arrest Warrant against him, which resulted in his detention without charge or even police interview in the UK for nearly two years.
The reason that the man does not wish to return to Sweden? Sweden has an extradition policy with extremely favourable terms for the USA. Any person in Swedish custody may be requested for transfer to the USA at any time with little recourse. The man as I'm sure you're aware is Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks and also a man that several prominent US politicians have named as someone they would like to be "disappeared".
Ecuador understand his plight and as such have granted him political asylum. The UK however refuse to allow him safe passage to Ecuador; if he so much as steps outside he will be arrested and shipped off to the US, via Sweden.
It sickens me to see such a flagrant and cynical disregard for legal procedure being carried out by my own government at the behest of the US.
Sorry to rant but I find the actions of my government, along with the US and Sweden abhorrent and unworthy of the worst dictators that we claim to despise.