Why does Julian Assange want to go to Ecuador?

[struggle4progress]

2012-06-21 Transcript: Julian Assange's first interview from Ecuadorian Embassy

... Fran Kelly: To avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning?

Julian Assange: Yeah, and that's... I don't know where you get that from. We've never said that's the case, and that's simply not the case. The issue is about a very serious matter in the United States and an announcement was made by the Swedes and the Swedish Government that I would be detained, without charge, in Sweden, immediately on extradition. They tried to cancel the 14 days that I had here to apply to appeal the matter at the European Court of Human Rights. So my opportunity to exercise my asylum rights in the United States was at an end. And this is not a matter of onwards extradition from Sweden to the United States. The situation here for me in the UK is extremely, has been extremely precarious. And the refusal by the Swedish prosecutor has led to a technical... the refusal by the Swedish prosecutor to come to the UK for the past 18 months, despite that being absolutely normal procedure, and the refusal of her to explain it in any matter whatsoever to the British court, has kept me trapped in the United Kingdom while the United States has prepared a case against me. We now have intelligence, public record, that the FBI file in its case preparation now runs to 48,135 pages.

Fran Kelly: Okay, let's break this down a bit just in the name of complete accuracy, Julian. Yes, I did say that you had sought political asylum in Ecuador to avoid extradition. What you're saying is, you did it because the Swedish Government had made an attempt to truncate your curtailed freedom as it already is there in the UK, but you are not prepared to go to Sweden under the terms that you believe you would be held in there. Is that what you're saying?

Julian Assange: That's right. My ability to exercise an asylum right would be at an end, and even to exercise rights of appeal, would be at an effective end because the Swedes announced publicly that they would detain me, in prison, without charge, while they continued their so-called investigation, without charge. So we had heard that the Ecuadorians were sympathetic in relation to my struggles and the stuggles of the organization with the United States. And the ability to exercise that option was at an effective end and we had the surprise news that the Crown Prosecution Service here suddenly objected to the 14 days we were meant to have to file an EU appeal and were asking for zero ...

http://wlcentral.org/node/2676

3 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	He now likes Ecuadorian women better than Swedish women
	2 (67%)
	He's hurt because only two Ozzie consular officials showed up for his daily court appearances
	0 (0%)
	So the Swedish prosecutors can interview him on an Ecuadorian beach
	0 (0%)
	Quito has better-quality people than Strasbourg
	0 (0%)
	Because (as he says), "I am Oz, the great and terrible!"
	0 (0%)
	He been told too much about the Swedish Gestapo: they'd have to kill him
	0 (0%)
	Queen Elizabeth is scheming to toss him into the Tower of London
	1 (33%)
	Sweden is overrun with body-snatching aliens
	0 (0%)
	The Americans want to sell him as a slave in South Carolina
	0 (0%)
	Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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