[ChampChump]

Julian Assange is to take legal action against the government of Ecuador.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45915017



I checked the date & it's not the 1st of anything (except the rest of ones life etc).

[Rob P]

Well he certainly should look after his cat.

Go Ecuador!

Rob P

[kanga]

Perhaps Snowden will now try suing the Russian Government

[Sooty25]

Ecuador need to temporarily close their Embassy.

[Flyin'Dutch']

No big fan of Assange here but can understand his reluctance to 'face justice' in the UK let alone US.

Thought his concern that the Swedes would surrender him to the Americans was a bit trumped up and would personally have favoured taking that chance rather than being 'imprisoned' in the embassy of a banana republic in London.

[chevvron]

What a pathetic wimp he is.
Obviously getting short of money so thinks that by threatening the country which has afforded him sanctuary, they will settle in monetary terms out of court.
He gets no sympathy from me; had he been 'man' enough to face up to the charges brought against him in Sweden and subsequently dropped, he'd have been free ages ago.

[johnm]

What a pathetic wimp he is.

Possibly true, but he spawned an important activity, all too relevant this week...…..

[Sir Morley Steven]

He wouldn’t be suing the Saudi Embassy.

[Yankee-K]

In all this saga I haven't seen any mention of the bail money posted by his friends. What happens to it, is it used to offset the huge cost of keeping him under surveillance?

[defcribed]

What a pathetic wimp he is.
Obviously getting short of money so thinks that by threatening the country which has afforded him sanctuary, they will settle in monetary terms out of court.
He gets no sympathy from me; had he been 'man' enough to face up to the charges brought against him in Sweden and subsequently dropped, he'd have been free ages ago.

That's one way of looking at it.

The other (which happens to be mine) is that the whole Swedish extradition thing smelt so badly that in his position I'd have been terrified.

Anyone familiar with this sort of legal matter will tell you how surprising it was that Sweden kept trying to extradite him and, even more so, that the UK agreed to it. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but it is hard to believe that the justice systems of both countries weren't being influenced in some way by persons unknown. If you don't believe this sort of thing can happen in Europe, read the story of how the Americans prised Howard Marks out of Spain.

The Americans will throw away the key if they ever get their hands on him. He obviously thinks they can still get him, otherwise he'd walk out the door.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I really don't know, but is there any good reason that the Ecuadorians couldn't have arranged a diplomatic flight for JA to Ecuador itself, where he could still have asylum whilst being considerably less of a nuisance to the Ecuadorian state?

G

[GolfHotel]

I really don't know, but is there any good reason that the Ecuadorians couldn't have arranged a diplomatic flight for JA to Ecuador itself, where he could still have asylum whilst being considerably less of a nuisance to the Ecuadorian state?

G

He’s not a diplomat so as soon as he steps onto UK territory he can be arrested.

If you check your passport you will see it says if you have dual nationality you can not be protected from the other country. So to become a diplomat and get diplomatic immunity he would have to give up his British passport (if he has one) and become a Ecuador citizen AND be accepted as a diplomat.

[kanga]

He’s not a diplomat so as soon as he steps onto UK territory he can be arrested.

If you check your passport you will see it says if you have dual nationality you can not be protected from the other country. So to become a diplomat and get diplomatic immunity he would have to give up his British passport (if he has one) and become a Ecuador citizen AND be accepted as a diplomat.

Er, he's Australian .. Australian government had earlier indicated that if he were in Australia, they would have accepted US government extradition request on charges related to his Wikileaks activities. UK courts (note, not UK government) had ordered his arrest and then authorised his bail only in relation to the European Arrest Warrant issued by Swedish court (not government) in relation to the sexual assault allegations.

Aiui, a foreigner can claim foreign diplomatic status when within another country when that status was declared to and accepted by that other country prior to entry, or proposed and accepted later by the latter, under agrement. However, one may later be granted 'protected' status by a third country, not your own, which effectively says that the third country is taking an official interest in what may happen to you.

This does not prevent someone having diplomatic status on behalf of a nation not their own, by agreement with the hosts. 'Honorary Consuls' are a common example. A well known UK peer was and maybe still is an ambassador for Belize.

[GolfHotel]

I’d noticed he was an Aussie. but as I’d made it clear I didn’t know his nationality didn’t bother to add that.

What do you think the chance of the UK giving him diplomatic immunity is?

Who said the UK government ordered his arrest?

[kanga]

Aiui, Assange has claimed that if he were in the UK court system on UK soil, then US government with UK government connivance could have him sent to US for trial relating to Wikileaks, and possible very serious sentence. But all the time that he was at large in UK and being dealt with by UK courts, neither UK nor US government made any legal attempt to do so, and AFAIK there is no history of Swedish courts or government complying with analogous extradition request on ' national security' grounds from US nor other NATO countries. Therefore, to me, his grounds for seeking asylum sanctuary seem pretty spurious unless he was merely trying to avoid the sexual assaults allegations.