Ricardo Patiño insists on safepassage for Assange

Julian Assange awaits safe passage from London

The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is at two weeks of fulfilling a year as a refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London. The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister maintains the position of insisting on the alternative of granting a safe conduct so that Assange leaves the embassy and England.

The regime of Rafael Correa does not know how much longer the controversial guest will remain at the embassy, given that the other countries involved in the case did not attend Ecuadorian requests, stated the Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino during a television interview.

“I do not want to put time frame,” said Patiño to the Uruguayan journalist Jorge Gestoso, when asked “how much (time)” would solve the issue, in a program that dealt exclusively with Assange. Gestoso shared his interview through his YouTube account, on Tuesday. During the dialogue, the Chancellor reiterated the stance of the regime.

“Ecuador, defends the freedom of expression, which it considers this matter to be essential for transparency in global issues, and believes that it is essential for a democratic country like the UK to consider the need to provide a safe passage,” he said.

Finally, Patino insisted the British government to allow Assange to leave the Embassy in London and travel to Ecuador. He stressed that this was the main request of the country, and that if it was not accepted alternatives could be analyzed. One of these is that the UK and Sweden “give full guarantees” that Assange will not be extradited to any other nation, they are allowed to move to Sweden to stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy and there to take statements for the judicial process against him.