UPDATE: 8:52am EST: Assange granted asylum by Ecuador.
UPDATE: 02:33am EST: Statement from Ecuador Foreign Minister and his account of contents of threatening letter from U.K. added.
UPDATE: 01:46am EST: Ecuador moves up announcement on whether to grant asylum to Assange to 10:00am local time in London, 07:00am Eastern Standard Time.
BREAKING NEWS: AUG 16, 2012 at 00:15 EST – The U.K. government has threatened to enter the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrest WikiLeaders founder Julian Assange, who is seeking political asylum there. Reporters and Occupy London members on the scene are reporting the arrival of 3 police vans with 12 officers in each van who appear to be surrounding the Embassy.
Occupy London is providing on and off again video feeds and Occupy Wall Street became involved shortly after police vans arrived tweeting “ANNOUNCEMENT: #Assange supporters are calling for an occupation at #Ecuador’s Embassy in #London RIGHT NOW”.
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UPDATE: Occupy London is updating feeds as they get them
The feeds are showing live at times,
and showing video tapes as they pause
to change batteries, etc.
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Ricardo Patino, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, told members of the press at a news conference in Quito on Wednesday that Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry and Ambassador in London had received a formal written threat Wednesday from Great Britain indicating “it could assault our embassy” were Assange to continue staying there.
“Today we received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they might storm our Embassy in London if we don’t hand over Julian Assange. Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication.”
He went on to note that such a threat was
“improper of a democratic, civilised and rule abiding country. If the measure announced in the British official communication is enacted, it will be interpreted by Ecuador as an unacceptable, unfriendly and hostile act and as an attempt against our sovereignty. It would force us to respond.
We are not a British colony”.
According to Patino the letter from the UK to Ecuador stated:
“You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the embassy.
We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.
We need to reiterate that we consider the continued use of the diplomatic premises in this way incompatible with the Vienna Convention and unsustainable and we have made clear the serious implications that this has for our diplomatic relations.”
As reported by the BBC, a British Foreign Office spokesman said the UK remained “determined” to fulfil its obligation to extradite Assange and stated:
“Throughout this process we have drawn the Ecuadorians’ attention to relevant provisions of our law, whether, for example, the extensive human rights safeguards in our extradition procedures, or to the legal status of diplomatic premises in the UK. We are still committed to reaching a mutually acceptable solution.”
The law Britain has informed Ecuador it could use in the case is the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 which allows the UK to revoke the diplomatic status of an embassy on UK soil, which would allow police to enter the building to arrest Assange.
As per the Australian website, The Age, Professor Donald Rothwell, from Australian National University College of Law, said the government’s stance shows just how serious Britain is about extraditing the WikiLeaks founder to Sweden.
“The Ecuadorian embassy enjoys protection under Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which precludes the United Kingdom authorities from entering the embassy without consent. Assange has enjoyed the protection of the embassy since he sought asylum there on June 19, 2012.
“If the United Kingdom revoked the embassy’s diplomatic protection and entered the embassy to arrest Assange, Ecuador could rightly view this as a significant violation of international law which may find its way before an international court.”
In Australia, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the Commonwealth had little power to intervene.
Ms Roxon said the government had yet to receive any formal advice on Assange’s asylum application to Ecuador. She said she had learnt of the latest updates through the media.
Despite calls for government intervention into Assange’s predicament, Ms Roxon insisted the matter was an issue between Assange and Ecuador, “and increasingly it seems it is a matter between Ecuador and the United Kingdom”.
“Our role in this is only a diplomatic one, a consular one to make sure Mr Assange has support that he needs for consular issues. It’s not something where we have any legal role where we can play.”
Wikileaks along with Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London have published requests for private citizens to come and protect Assange from arrest.
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See the Wikileak statement below
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According to The Telegraph A spokeswoman for the Foreign office said Britain remained “determined” to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden.
“We have an obligation to extradite Mr Assange and it is only right that we give Ecuador the full picture.
“Throughout this process we have drawn the Ecuadorians’ attention to relevant provisions of our law, whether, for example, the extensive human rights safeguards in our extradition procedures, or the legal status of diplomatic premises in the UK.
“The UK has a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual offences and we remain determined to fulfil this obligation.
“We are still committed to reaching a mutually acceptable solution.”
Wikileaks Statement on Assange
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