Britain is considering talks with Ecuador to discuss the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the UK’s Foreign Office. This would be the first major step towards resolving a one-year diplomatic stand-off.
The Foreign Office announced that it is considering taking up
Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino’s request to set up a
meeting with Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague when
Patino will visits London later in June.
“We’re considering that request. We hope the visit will
contribute to our joint commitment to finding a diplomatic
solution to this issue,” Reuters quoted a spokeswoman as
saying.
Julian Assange has been inside of the Ecuadorian Embassy in
London since June 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden
where he is wanted for questioning in regards to allegation of
sex crimes, which he has denied.
He refuses to go to Sweden unless it guarantees that it won’t
extradite him to the US, where Assange faces espionage charges
over data released by WikiLeaks. According to his lawyers, if
sent to the US he is likely to face trial and possibly even the
death penalty over WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of classified
US diplomatic cables.
Ecuador has given Assange asylum and houses him in a small
basement room in its London embassy. UK law enforcement keeps a
close eye on the embassy, ready to arrest Assange should he leave
the diplomatically-protected building.
The cost of the surveillance, which is believed to involve two
police vehicles and eight officers on duty at all times, is now
over $16,500 a day, Scotland Yard recently reported. The
operation cost British taxpayers over $5 million since Assange
got his refuge on June 19, 2012. By the time of the anniversary,
the sum is expected to have exceeded $6.3 million.
The WikiLeaks Party submitted its registration to
the Australian Electoral Commission in April and has secured over
1,000 fee-paying members, more than double the 500 members
required for registration. Assange is planning to run for a
senate seat.
Assange is preparing for a tough remote campaign. If elected, he
still may not be physically present at the Australian Senate if
he remains trapped in the embassy. Assange’s running mate could
sit in for the WikiLeaks founder if he wins the race but is
unable to leave the embassy.
The Foreign Office’s announcement comes on the day the trial of Bradley Manning, the United States Army
private responsible for the biggest intelligence leak in US
history, begins. US authorities arrested Manning in May 2010 and
accused him of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive
government files to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
This article originally appeared on: RT