29.10 Ecuador President Mulls Taking Assange Case to UN Court
MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) Ecuadors president said Tuesday that sending the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to a United Nations court was under consideration.
Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of sexual assault. He has strongly denied all accusations, saying they were part of a smear campaign against him.
Assanges whistleblowing website WikiLeaks made an enemy of the US government in 2010, when it leaked hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic cables. The US authorities have not ruled out requesting Assanges extradition from Sweden.
Top diplomats of Ecuador and the United Kingdom agreed in mid-June to set up a bilateral commission of lawyers to resolve the diplomatic standoff, but London later dropped the idea.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Tuesday that UK authorities had yet to formally notify his country about their refusal to set up the commission.
Ecuador did everything that needed to be done. It gave political asylum to Assange and conducted all the required procedures. But, at the moment, Assanges fate depends fully on Europe, namely on Sweden and the UK, Correa said on a visit to Moscow.
