GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ecuador is expected to announce Thursday 21 June the fate of WikiLeak’s founder Julian Assange who requested political asylum after taking refuge in the country’s London embassy earlier this week.
President Rafael Correa will make the government’s decision public Thursday regarding Assange’s application for asylum, deputy foreign minister Marco Albuja told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The WikiLeak’s founder took refuge in the embassy Tuesday in a list-ditch effort to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him for allegations of sexual attacks by two women, which he denies. Last week the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rejected Assange’s bid to reopen his appeal of the decision to send him to Sweden.
London’s Metropolitan police said Wednesday that Assange will be arrested if he leaves the embassy, as he is breaking the terms of his bail. Those conditions specify that he spends every night at the home of a supporter outside of London.
Ecuador’s foreign minister Ricardo Patiño said on his Twitter account that he was studying if Assange could face the death penalty if he is then extradited from Sweden to the United States, where he faces espionage charges.
Links to other sources: The Daily Telegraph, CNN
