Lawyer: Raid on Embassy to Arrest Assange Would Be 'Unprecedented' Breach of Diplomatic Immunity

20 Aug 2012

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Britain is refusing to give Julian Assange of WikiLeaks safe passage out of the country even though Ecuador has granted him political asylum. On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy. Britain has also threatened to raid the embassy in order to arrest Assange.

A legal advisor to Assange, Jennifer Robinson argues, "Ecuador has diplomatic status. If the UK government were to revoke that status, it would be a watershed in international law" and would put diplomats all over the world at risk.

© Democracy Now!

Editor's Note: You might also be interested in "Organization of American States to Meet Over UK's Threats to Seize Assange From Embassy". You can watch the speech made by Julian Assange from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge on Sunday, 19 August 2012, here. Meanwhile, a day later, the New York Times published an op-ed by Academy-Award winnning filmmakers, Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, taking a stand in support of Assange. Find their article titiled "WikiLeaks and Free Speech" here.

You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1396.

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