Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian Assange on Thursday, ratcheting up tension in a standoff with Britain which has warned it could revoke the diplomatic status of Quito’s embassy in London to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder. The high-profile Australian former hacker has been holed up inside the red-brick embassy in central London for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape allegations. Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he feared for the safety and rights of Assange which is why he said his country had decided to grant him asylum. “Ecuador has decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange,” Patino told a news conference in Quito. Ecuador’s decision takes what has become an international soap opera to new heights since Assange first angered the United States and its allies by publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his WikiLeaks website. READ ON: Ecuador grants political asylum to Julian Assange
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Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian Assange on Thursday, ratcheting up tension in a standoff with Britain which has warned it could revoke the diplomatic status of Quito’s embassy in London to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder.

The high-profile Australian former hacker has been holed up inside the red-brick embassy in central London for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape allegations.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he feared for the safety and rights of Assange which is why he said his country had decided to grant him asylum.

“Ecuador has decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange,” Patino told a news conference in Quito.

Ecuador’s decision takes what has become an international soap opera to new heights since Assange first angered the United States and its allies by publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his WikiLeaks website.

READ ON: Ecuador grants political asylum to Julian Assange

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  1. yourenotinprisontheyare reblogged this from reuters
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  6. palabrasdeunamuslimah reblogged this from neverdancewiththedevil
  7. neverdancewiththedevil reblogged this from doufusion
  8. doufusion reblogged this from nothingworthknowingcanbetaught and added:
    now he will finally live on safely …. in exile. Such a sad world we live in
  9. nothingworthknowingcanbetaught reblogged this from reuters
  10. aboriginalpressnews reblogged this from reuters
  11. saltedpistachio reblogged this from valetudo
  12. jmacdonald2010 reblogged this from reuters and added:
    They’re not allegations...rape, it’s sexual assault. There
  13. heytherecharles reblogged this from reuters and added:
    YESSSS
  14. flongafack reblogged this from reuters
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  22. new-delete reblogged this from reuters and added:
    My question is why...British government would do so much
  23. psalloacappella reblogged this from reuters
  24. yellowhammer-blurb said: This is ridiculous, anything to make things political. Sweden should be the one’s taking this on, not the U.K.
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