Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino is due to arrive in England to hold talks over the situation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Patino is scheduled to meet with British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday, the state-funded BBC reported.
Patino said he hoped Hague would show flexibility regarding Assangeâ„¢s situation and that his trip would help move the situation forward.
The Ecuadorian foreign minister will also meet with Assange during his visit.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said, “We remain committed to seeking a diplomatic solution to this situation and must also ensure that our laws are followed.”
“The UK has a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual offences, and the British police must fulfill this,” he added
The WikiLeaks founder was accused of committing rape and other sexual crimes in Sweden after the whistleblower made US Å“secret” and Å“top secret” documents publicly available on the website, despite intense efforts by US officials to stop him.
In an attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden, Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 19, 2012 and applied for political asylum.
Assange had embarked on a marathon round of court battles but finally exhausted all his options under British law in June 2012 when the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against extradition.
Assange has maintained that he is innocent and claims the allegations against him are politically motivated. He says that if he is extradited to Sweden, the authorities there could hand him over to the United States, where he could be prosecuted for his role in leaking classified documents.
Assange gained international prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables, which embarrassed the US government. The website has also published hundreds of thousands of classified US documents relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NT/AS
This article originally appeared on: Press TV