Assange may quit embassy amid claims of ill health
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange, who has spent more than two years in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid a sex crimes inquiry in Sweden, said yesterday he planned to leave the building soon, but Britain signalled it would still arrest him if he tried.
Assange made the surprise assertion during a news conference alongside Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino. But his spokesman played down the chances of an imminent departure, saying the British government would first need to revise its position and let him leave without arrest, something it has repeatedly refused to do.
The Australian, 43, fled to the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition for questioning in Sweden over sex assault and rape allegations, which he denies.
He says he fears that if extradited to Sweden he would then be handed over to the US, where he could be tried for one of the largest information leaks in US history.
Assange would be arrested if he exited the London embassy because he has breached his British bail terms.
“I am leaving the embassy soon . . . but perhaps not for the reasons that Murdoch press and Sky news are saying at the moment,” Assange said at the embassy in central London.
He did not confirm rumours that he had developed a serious heart and lung conditions during his two years’ confinement and needed urgent medical attention.
Supporters want him to seek hospital treatment, but complain he will be arrested if he tries to do so.
They say after being unable to go outside and living in an air-conditioned atmosphere, he is suffering from arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, a chronic cough and high blood pressure. Lack of sunshine has left him with a vitamin D deficiency that could lead to asthma, diabetes, weak bones and other conditions, WikiLeaks sources claim.
Assange says he could face 35 years jail for publishing on WikiLeaks classified documents related to US activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Police officers, stationed outside the embassy round the clock in an operation that has so far cost £7-million (R125-million), are under orders to arrest him if he tries to leave.
The Ecuadorians say they have asked for permission to take Assange to hospital but have had no reply.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman refused to confirm if Assange would face arrest. “We wouldn’t discuss matters like this,” he said.
But a WikiLeaks source said: “He would come round handcuffed to his hospital bed.”
The ex-computer hacker claims the British authorities have confiscated his passport so he could not get far even if he did escape the embassy, adding: “It’s not like I can go into the Australian Consulate to get a replacement.
“I would want an understanding – formal or informal – that I would be given time to leave the UK before the US puts in an extradition bid. And then I’d go to my children, like any father.” – The Daily Telegraph