Assange allegations ‘not crimes’ in 95% of world-Ecuadorean leader
UK: Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said the allegations in Sweden
against Julian Assange would not be crimes in nearly every other
country, in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times.
Correa told the broadsheet that the sex crime allegations against the
WikiLeaks founder were “not a crime in Latin America” and had played no
part in Quito's decision to grant Assange asylum.
He also blasted the British government for its “contradictions” in
wanting to extradite Assange to Sweden, when it did not extradite former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after his 1998 arrest in London on an
international arrest warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon --
who is now heading Assange's legal team.
“The crimes that Assange is accused of, they would not be crimes in
90 to 95 percent of the planet,” Correa told The Sunday Times.
“Not to use a condom in an act between a couple, this is not a crime
in Latin America.
“But I don't want to get any more into this, this has been irrelevant
to the decision taken by Ecuador. “And we're all in agreement that
Julian Assange should go to the Swedish justice system.” Assange, having
exhausted all his legal options in Britain to avoid extradition to
Sweden, walked into the Ecuadoran embassy on June 19 and claimed asylum.
The 41-year-old Australian fears he would be passed on to the United
States, which he enraged by releasing a vast cache of its confidential
government files.
With Assange holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, British
Foreign Secretary William Hague pointed out to Quito an obscure 1987 law
under which its police could enter the mission and extract Assange.
British Prime Minister David Cameron “must be really angry with his
foreign minister”, Correa said.
“Because, besides the rudeness and the discourtesy, the intolerable
threat this was, it was a huge diplomatic blunder.”
The 34-member Organization of American States declared “solidarity
and support” for Ecuador on Friday, rejecting “any attempt that might
put at risk the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions.”
Correa added: “Britain supported Augusto Pinochet unconditionally.
And they let him go, they didn't extradite him on humanitarian
grounds -- whereas they want to extradite Julian Assange for not using a
condom, for the love of God.
“These are grave contradictions.”
AFP |