This weekend marked three years since Julian Assange slipped into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, England, claiming political asylum. Already a strong supporter of rights and transparency, the president of the Ecuador has now said Mr Assange is welcome to stay for the rest of his life, should he need to.
Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa said over the weekend that Assange hadn’t overstayed his welcome. Correa also spoke sharply about the police guard that is keeping Assange inside the London embassy’s grounds.
“If we had a European refugee in a European embassy in Quito, if we were to keep him three years without letting him stay, we would be called dictators, fascists,” Correa said to Euronews. “We would be brought in front of the International Criminal Court.”
Assange, founder of leading transparency website Wikileaks, is likely grateful for the support yet still hopes to obtain his freedom given the long and uncomfortable confinement that has been just slightly better than being in prison. Assange is currently hiding out to avoid an investigation into suspicious sexual misconduct charges in Sweden, which are likely a ploy to get him in jail for hosting a slew of documents concerning the secret affairs of the world’s superpowers.
Despite Swedish authorities being welcome to question Assange and complete their investigation inside the embassy itself, they have bowed to international pressure from the United States and United Kingdom and failed to do, trapping Assange. Earlier this week the Swedes were supposed to visit him for an interview but they backed out at the last minute due to political interference.
Police officers continue to watch the embassy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. London’s Metropolitan Police told a local broadcaster that the cost of keeping him confined over the last three years was a stunning $17.6 million.
Clearly, world superpowers do not like the idea of regular citizens knowing what they do. A recent example is the super-secret gift to corporations known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, a ‘trade agreement’ that President Obama is trying to entirely negotiate in secret.
Wikileaks has been the only organization to find and publish advanced copies of the shady deal, which we’ve covered here and here.
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