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WIKILEAKS FOUNDER Julian Assange yesterday walked into Ecuador’s embassy in London and applied for political asylum in a sensational bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.
The former computer hacker, who last week exhausted all his legal options in Britain to fight extradition, was holed up at the embassy in central London while Quito examined the request, officials said.
Britain’s Foreign Office said Assange was “beyond the reach of the police” because he was on diplomatic territory, but stressed it would seek to work with the Ecuadorian authorities “to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”
Assange will remain at the embassy under the protection of the Ecuadorian government while his application is considered.
“The decision to consider Mr Assange’s application for protective asylum should in no way be interpreted as the Government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden,” the embassy said in a statement.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday that Australia will continue to offer consular assistance to Assange.
“Australia will continue to support Mr. Assange just as we do support any Australian overseas who faces legal difficulties or dilemmas,” Gillard told reporters after a Group of 20 summit in Mexico.
Assange confirmed in a statement he was seeking “diplomatic sanctuary and political asylum” and expressed his gratitude to the Ecuadorian ambassador and government for considering the request.
In Quito, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said: “Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the diplomatic mission of Ecuador in London.
“The government is examining the request.”
The embassy later confirmed it would be seeking the views of Britain, Sweden and the United States in order to make sure it complied with international law.
Assange has always maintained that the moves to extradite him to Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault are politically motivated and that the real aim is for him to be handed over to US authorities.
The silver-haired 40-year-old Australian’s website enraged Washington by releasing a flood of classified US information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It also published more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables, revealing often candid assessments of a huge range of issues as well as the views of other governments.
Ecuador offered Assange residency in 2010, with the government saying at the time it wanted to invite Assange to speak in Ecuador after expressing concern about some of the alleged US activities revealed by Wikileaks.
Assange interviewed Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa for his talk show aired on the Russian international television station RT in April.
The embassy is in the upmarket west London district of Knightsbridge, near to Harrods department store and in the same mansion block as the Colombian embassy.
A supporter of Assange, Jemima Khan, the former wife of Pakistan politician Imran Khan, said on Twitter she was “as surprised as anyone” by the move and had expected him to face the allegations in Sweden.
The request for asylum came after Britain’s Supreme Court last week rejected an application by Assange to reopen his appeal against extradition.
The decision closed Assange’s last legal avenue in Britain, although he could still take his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
The court said extradition proceedings could not begin for two weeks.
Assange’s lawyers have until June 28 to apply to the Strasbourg court to consider his case on the basis that he has not had a fair hearing from the British courts.
In the United States, soldier Bradley Manning is facing trial over accusations that he handed a huge cache of documents to WikiLeaks.
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More CCTV in London, than anywhere. He’ll be on it…
They still need all the footage they can possibly get.. CCTV only helps so much.
I always thought it used to be a terrorist attack if the perpetrator or perpetrators were foreign. Hence why in NI the IRA were classed as ‘the terrorist group IRA’ in the media and the UDA were simply ‘UDA’. Chances are this guy is British born with a British passport.
With all them people getton on and off the train why didn’t people help the poor man???
Because in a crisis or serious incident, the first thing people do these days is get their phones out to record it……. As soon as the police arrived and cuffed the man there were loads of heroes who wanted to have a go
Everyone for there own here people though he could blow himself up
Muslim extremists are known to blow themselves up.
Because most unarmed people are not trained or capable of disarming and subdduing a lunatic with a knife.
Very easy to sit behind a screen and say that. Would you bravely take on a lunatic wielding a knife, potentially costing you your own life? I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I would. Thoughts of my family having to deal with it etc.
Somebody did help help. The assailant was punched and pinned to the ground:m.
..maybe it’s something we need to consider then…knife attacks getting too common here too.
my first thought would be my children at home. I wouldn’t take on a lunatic with a knife
But Maria, If you were the victim and you were being violently attacked – wouldn’t you be hoping someone would step in (or several people would step in) so that you could see your children again!?
In Europe citizens have been completely disarmed by the government. For some unknown reason it is even illegal to carry any weapon (not even pepper spray) for self-defence purposes. We are defenceless in the face of armed fanatics. No surprise nobody wants to help: bare hand against a knife? No thanks…
i saved a drunken irish girl from an afgan one night, i got no thanks, apparently she laughed at it the next day. he was trying to bring her along with him, linked by the arm. her friend asked me to stick around, i can still remember the evil look of pure hate on that mans face when he told me to go away and mind my own woman. i have never been able to view islam in the same light since to be honest.
It’s a pretty sad reflection on society today, that people will whip out their phones to film an attack rather than help the victim.
Did you ever watch Black Mirror? They’re all thought provoking, but there is one about a woman who wakes up with no knowledge of who she is, she is running through the streets looking for help, but people just film her on their phones.
Sounds interesting, will keep an eye out for it. Thanks Gemma.
“London tube stabbing attack” that should read “London tube terrorist attack”.
The profiling of all male Muslims between the ages of 19 to 29 won’t be far off
Would be sensible in fact. They’re unhinged at this stage.
Sm 987123 It wont happen in the UK .
Idiotic. Read some history and some perspective.
Read some history and get some perspective. I have done thanks. And history points to this as being a logical step. But thanks for your idiotic input moron
You’re probably correct. Instead they’ll probably implement more Internet “controls” on everyone else as a “safety ” precaution
Why so many red Thumbs . Its the truth . Cameron and his lot wont let it happen .
I think it’s interesting how this is constantly classed as a terrorist attack in every article and news bulletin when it looks like one mentally deranged man with a knife screaming his cause is for Syria after hearing about it on the news, it’s the lone reasoning of a nutter and it’s not like it’s the only knife attack that happened over the last week in the UK, there were many as usual, just the only one who mentioned something political and we are getting endless coverage and updates about a single small every day incident which is being used by the media to fan the recent flames of fear and the threat of terror to justify the UK ‘s involvement in the Syrian proxy conflict.
You think it’s interesting, sounds familiar ‘Derek’. It sounds like you’d prefer if the details or motivation behind this attack were not discussed or established, as they would be if it was motivated by robbery or hate. The facts speak for themselves here, an attack on commuters made in the name if Syria a couple of days after Britain commence bombing Syria, it is significant and not just another london stabbing.
The officer that tazed him is heard shouting “drop it you fool”. It took 3 attempts at tazering him to detain him as if he was on drugs or a somehow slow. No one other than the BBC and other foreign media outlets are claiming to call it a terrorist attack. This is one twisted moron who happens to be Muslim. But ‘JimmyMc’ that’s the reason your on here to push for more hatred and vilification of all Muslims where I’m simply stating what my opinion is based on the video, the response by media and little else. Very few others online are making a big deal of it. Seen as yet another stabbing my a thug. There’s no statement from Downing St or the government like after an actual terrorist attack. You and the mob who have taken over from the once semi rational commenter are no better than your typical lynch mob waiting for a reason to come on here with the mention of muslims. Id rather discuss the facts and await further information than jump on the bandwagon. If the next guy who knifes someone is claiming it’s for the Palestinian conflict or the current price of a packet of Tux biscuits would you be as quick to call it a terrorist attack? He was kicking the hell out of one man on the ground and then attacked him with a knife, it makes headline news on CNN and of course gets mentioned by BBC but they still make the flooding and storm top story.
Hardly a terrorist attack though. One unhinged lunatic attacking people shouting a slogan is not the work of a terrorist organisation. Similarly if an Irish person in the 80′s assaulted an English person shouting “Up the ‘RA” it would hardly have been considered a terrorist attack.
People were terrified, and terrorized, so yes it is a terrorist attack!
So that makes every attack a terrorist attack then
Malcolm, that definition of terrorism would cover just about every military action.
Is there not a stabbing every day in London?
At least , but few are indiscriminate terrorists on commuters trying to get home
Sorry it’s Sunday. The head is a little hazy
So nobody helped him then. They just pretended not to notice and walked on. Selfish society.
Tosser is right…
Google bystander effect. Not only is this common all over the world, it is to be expected
People tried to throw things at him. Someone threw a bottle, it says in the article. Would you confront someone with a knife, someone who had already shown that he’ll use it. Serious keyboard warriors on here!
Back in July, a neo nazi in Stoke chased down a random Indian guy and stabbed him in the neck
in a supposed revenge for Lee Rigbys murder. There was no wall to wall to coverage of it, and there certainly wasn’t anyone calling it a terrorist incident, because people were able to rationalise it as one lunatic who lost his mind.
As someone who lives 5 minutes up the road Leytonstone I don’t feel like it’s a terrorist incident. It’s a lunatic going out attacking random people, which is, sadly enough, a common enough occurrence in this part of London.
Very easy to be a hero if your not there. Real life heros are different to keyboard heros.
have your say