|

Latest News

WikiLeaks' Assange to address UN on asylum bid

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 | 4:04 PM



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to address a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly via a videolink from his hideout at Ecuador's London embassy, seeking to draw new attention to his efforts to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations.

Ecuador's mission to the United Nations said Tuesday that Assange was scheduled to speak Wednesday alongside foreign minister Ricardo Patino at a specially convened event to discuss his asylum case.

The Australian activist is seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations and has been sheltered inside Ecuador's embassy in London — beyond the reach of British police — since he fled there on June 19.

Since then President Rafael Correa has granted Assange asylum, but he is unable to leave the country's tiny mission. If he steps outside the apartment-sized embassy, police who surround the building will arrest him.

Assange and his supporters claim that the Swedish sex case is part of a Washington-orchestrated plot to make him stand trial in the United States over his work with WikiLeaks, which has published thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and other documents. Both Sweden and the US reject that claim.

In his last public appearance, a speech in August from the balcony of Ecuador's embassy, Assange cast himself as the victim of an American "witch hunt" over his secret-spilling website.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the UN was dealing with "much bigger issues" than Assange's fate, but acknowledged there was no current prospect of a resolution to the case in discussions with Ecuador.

"We agreed that we would continue to talk, and we will continue to talk about this issue with the government of Ecuador. But I see no sign of any break through," Hague told reporters at the U.N.

He said the U.K. had an obligation to uphold British and European law by sending Assange to Sweden. "This may go on for some time," Hague said.

Quito and London had clashed over the case, after the U.K. suggested that one potential option would be to invoke a little-known law to strip Ecuador's embassy of diplomatic privileges — meaning police would be free to move in and detain Assange.

Hague has insisted that diplomats have no intention of carrying out that action, and had simply been briefing Ecuador on all possible legal options.

Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserver

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver



Honduran gangs plan truce to cut violence

 

CPL international stars announced for T20 draft

 

$45m found at Kingston wharf

 

Armed robbery in Santa Cruz linked to cash-for-gold trade

 

Customs detains pork products in MoBay  

 

Two bodies fished from Kingston Harbour

 

Barbadian collects J$362 million Super Lotto Jackpot

 

IMF appoints new rep for Jamaica

 

J$99.12 to one US dollar

 

Boyz Bahamas camp cut short

 

Two million cigarette butts collected in coastal cleanup

 

Firearm seized, two men arrested in Kingston 8

 

NWA, NWC sign road reinstatement contract

 

Two Dominicans rescued by cruise liner

 

Update: British Airways plane catches fire in flight

 

Twenty-seven Jamaicans vie in NY Diamond League Saturday

 

Waltham Park residents protest police killing

 

Ganja weighing 767 pounds found in cesspool truck

 

James, Bryant voted to All-NBA first team

 

Police kill one of St Catherine's most wanted

 

Today's Cartoon