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Ecuador slams 'vulgar' British threats

2012-08-18 22:32

 
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Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. [AFP)

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. (AFP)

Quito - Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on Saturday slammed what he called Britain's "vulgar threats" to remove WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the London embassy where he has been granted asylum.


"Never, as long as I am president, will Ecuador accept threats like these, which are absolutely vulgar, inconsiderate and intolerable," Correa said in a weekly statement.

"We will not give up our sovereignty. We respect everyone, and we are always seeking dialogue, but the final decision is ours."

On Wednesday, Ecuador said it had been informed in writing that Britain was willing to seize Assange from the embassy in order to extradite him to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about sexual assault allegations.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday that his government was obliged under its own laws to extradite the Australian national to Sweden.

"No one, least of all the government of Ecuador, should be in any doubt that we are determined to carry out our legal obligation," Hague told reporters.

Assange to make statement


Assange says he fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States, which views WikiLeaks as a threat to its national security following the leak of a trove of secret front-line military reports and confidential embassy cables.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadoran embassy in London on 19 June after exhausting all legal appeals against the extradition.

Ecuador has granted Assange's request for asylum, but with British police posted outside the embassy it is unclear whether he will be able to leave the building.

Assange plans to make a public statement on the case on Sunday, according to a spokesperson, who declined to provide any further details.

The Organisation of American States has meanwhile called a meeting of foreign ministers for 24 August to discuss the Assange case and the widening diplomatic row between Quito and London.

FM
Julian Assange asks US to end ‘Wiki witch-hunt’
Dipankar De Sarkar, Hindustan Times
London, August 20, 2012
 
Assange calls on Obama to 'do the right thing'
Making a dramatic appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Sunday accused the British police of attempting to storm the mission last week in a bid to spirit him away to Sweden in defiance of the Vienna Convention. In his first
 
statement in two months, he also asked the US government to call off a "witch-hunt" against the whistleblowing website that has angered Washington by publishing secret diplomatic cables.
 
The 41-year-old Australian, who faces allegations of rape and sexual harassment in Sweden, fears Stockholm may extradite him to the US, where, in his view, he would face persecution and long-term imprisonment.

Speaking from within the London mission to avoid arrest by the British police, who have surrounded the building, Assange said, "The United States war on whistleblowers must end."

"On Wednesday night after a threat was sent to this embassy and police descended on this building you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it," Assange told hundreds of free-speech campaigners and journalists at Knightsbridge, where the embassy is located on the first floor of a block of luxury flats.

"Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape. If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Convention… it was because the world was watching…"

The convention protects foreign embassies and diplomats from host governments.

But, in what has been widely seen as a threat, British officials last week spoke of a 1987 law that allows them to de-recognise a diplomatic building.

Foreign minister William Hague has denied the allegation.

Assange jumped bail on June 19 to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy following which Quito offered him political asylum.

FM

 

Making a dramatic appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Sunday accused the British police of attempting to storm the mission last week in a bid to spirit him away to Sweden in defiance of the Vienna Convention

The actually harassed the embassy...

FM
Originally Posted by baseman:

He seemed to have picked the wrong embassy.  Now he cannot even get to the hallway to get to an elevator or stair to get to a car to get to the airport to get to Ecuador.

Which embassy would've you suggested? American?

FM

Sovereignty of embassies has never been absolute. As with nation states themselves there is no prohibition for another state to go in and extract one bent on criminal enterprise that harms them or their citizens. Ecuador knows of Britain's obligation to turn over a criminal to another state. It intervened to thwart that on its narrow principles. Well, the sucker aint moving and if  he intend to grow old there then it is as good a prison with the Ecuadorians being his host.

FM
Originally Posted by Stormborn:

Sovereignty of embassies has never been absolute. As with nation states themselves there is no prohibition for another state to go in and extract one bent on criminal enterprise that harms them or their citizens. Ecuador knows of Britain's obligation to turn over a criminal to another state. It intervened to thwart that on its narrow principles. Well, the sucker aint moving and if  he intend to grow old there then it is as good a prison with the Ecuadorians being his host.


This is because White Anglo-Nations are above international law.

FM
Originally Posted by Lucas:
Originally Posted by Stormborn:

Sovereignty of embassies has never been absolute. As with nation states themselves there is no prohibition for another state to go in and extract one bent on criminal enterprise that harms them or their citizens. Ecuador knows of Britain's obligation to turn over a criminal to another state. It intervened to thwart that on its narrow principles. Well, the sucker aint moving and if  he intend to grow old there then it is as good a prison with the Ecuadorians being his host.


This is because White Anglo-Nations are above international law.

Dummy, it is because nothing ever is.

FM

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