Assange faces arrest for breaching bail conditions

The 40 year old Australian turned up at the embassy building in London’s Knighstbridge – seeking asylum under the United Nations declaration of Human Rights. He’s wanted in Sweden to face charges of sexual molestation and rape, and last week the UK Supreme Court rejected his appeal against extradition.

Although he was given until 28 June to lodge an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, it’s thought Assange feared he didn’t have much chance of success.

His decision to seek asylum, though, means he’s in breach of a bail condition requiring him to remain at home between 10pm and 8am every night, and report to a local police station.

His £240,000 bail has been guaranteed by several supporters, including the film director Ken Loach, and the celebrity Bianca Jagger. However reports that John Pilger and Bianca Jagger had also contributed have proved erroneous.

Bail money at risk

Anyone who has paid towards the bail could be made to forfeit that cash. Jemima Khan, writing on Twitter, said she had expected Assange to face the allegations, adding: “I am as surprised as anyone by this”.

Vaughn Smith, who has given Assange a temporary home for more than a year, said he was “worried” about losing the cash that he put up, and would have advised him not to try claiming asylum if he had known what he’d been planning. “I was surprised. I haven’t spoken to him for two weeks”, he told the Evening Standard. “If I were to lose money it would impact the wealth of my family. But at the same time my family are not living in fear of their lives, and I genuinely believe that Julian is.”

I am as surprised as anyone by this. Jemima Khan

Ecuadorean officials said Assange wrote to the country’s president Rafael Correa, claiming that “the authorities in his country will not defend his minimum guarantees in front of any government, or ignore the obligation to protect a politically persecuted citizen”.

And he said it was impossible for him to return to Australia, because he would not be protected from being extradited to “a foreign coutnry that applies the death penalty for the crime of espionage and sedition”.

Assange’s Swedish lawyers have warned him that he could be handed over to the United States after the conclusion of the investigation into the sex charges. In a statement, the Ecuadorean embassy said it was not trying to interfere in the judicial process of the United Kingdom or Sweden – and would be seeking the views of both governments, along with the United States, before reaching a decision.

Quito bound?

Ecuador first offered Mr Assange residency in November 2010, although that offer was withdrawn. And it does have an extadition treaty with the United States – so he could still be sent there to face any espionage charges which might arise. It would also would be something of a challenge for Assange to get himself out of the country without being arrested.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations states that local police are not permitted to enter a foreign embassy building without express permission from the ambassador – known as the “rule of inviolability”. However there’s nothing to stop them apprehending Mr Assange if he tried to leave the building for the airport – unless Ecuador granted him diplomatic status.

The Foreign Office said talks were taking place with the authorities in Ecuador to “resolve this situation as soon as possible”. Until then, Assange is likely to remain holed up inside the embassy building – a stone’s throw from the Harrods department store, in a building shared with the Embassy of Columbia, and some residential flats.

No doubt diplomats will be hoping he won’t be there as long as Jozsef Mindszenty, a Catholic cardinal who spent a record 15 years inside the American embassy in Budapest, after the Russian invasion in 1956. According to the Guardian, the Ecuadorians don’t have much room to spare in their London building, with just a handful of small office rooms and a kitchen-dining area.

Julian Assange appears to enjoy friendly relations with Ecuador’s president Correa. Last month he interviewed him for a rather short-lived chat show which he hosted for Russia Today. But that might not mean he gets a free ride. Ecuador rejected more than three quarters of all asylum applications last year – turning down almost 10,000 people – while 21,500 cases are still to be decided.

Free speech concerns

Ecuador has described Assange’s announcement as “very transcendental for foreign policy”, and suggested his request for asylum would be approved. But if he ever did make it there, he might end up in a country which has been frequently accused of clamping down on free speech by organisations including Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders.

The Wall Street Journal points out another irony – the owner of an Ecuadorean newspaper sought asylum in the Embassy of Panama in Quito, after his paper was fined and four of its staff were sentenced to jail for defaming president Correa. He only left the building after the fine and prison terms were rescinded.

The authorities in Quito weren’t best pleased by some of the revelations in the secret cables published by Wikilieaks: in particular, one suggesting that Mr Correa had named someone involved in corruption as chief of police. The country has also described some reporters and opposition figures as “informants” because their names cropped up in some of the leaked documents.