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| Julian Assange |
Ecuador's president isn't concerned that Julian Assange may sexually assault his own countrywomen. Also, why is Australia missing in action, given that Assange is an Aussie? From Yahoo! News: "Ecuador's foreign minister announced on Thursday that the country would grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, defying threats by the British government to storm the Ecuadorean Embassy and extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation. 'We have decided to grant political asylum to him,' Ricardo Patino said at the end of a long televised statement from the Ecuadorean capital of Quito, where he criticized the U.S. and U.K. governments for failing to protect Assange from political persecution. 'The countries that have a right to protect Assange have failed him,' Patino said. '[Assange] is victim of political persecution.....If Assange is extradited to U.S., he will not receive a fair trial.'"
The article continues about this international hot mess: "The foreign minister said that Ecuador asked Sweden to promise it would not extradite Assange to the United States, but Sweden refused. 'Asylum is a fundamental human right,' Patino said, adding that 'international law' overrides local laws, and that Assange has 'the right not to be extradited or expelled to any country.'"
The Brits are still gonna do their own thing regarding Assange: "'British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden,' a spokesman for the office said. 'We shall carry out that obligation. The Ecuadorean government's decision this afternoon does not change that.' 'We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom,' British Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a press conference. 'Nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not recognize the principle of diplomatic asylum.'"
