Sweden, Ecuador to talk over Julian Assange

Julian Assange says he rarely makes public appearances due to mounting security concerns.

Because the Ecuadorian Embassy shares its building, Scotland Yard had been able to station officers inside in hallways, on stairs, by lifts and blocking all routes that could get Assange to a auto, the document claimed.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June 2012, when he secured political asylum from Quito after he lost a legal battle against extradition to Sweden.

“Of course, the aim is that this general agreement on legal assistance will be applicable in this individual case”, Riddselius told The Associated Press.

Norway has invited Snowden to the country to accept the Bjørnson Prize by the Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Academy for freedom of expression, for “work protecting privacy and for shining a critical light on U.S. surveillance of its citizens and others”.

Assange’s lawyer in Sweden, Thomas Olsson, said he had no details about the talks, but that Assange has welcomed the idea of questioning in London “for some time”. “He has been convinced that as soon as he has told his version of the facts the prosecutor will have to shut down the investigation”. He has so far evaded an extradition order in relation to alleged sex offences made against him in Sweden.

The lesser sexual allegations have now lapsed because of the Swedish statute of limitations, or the maximum time within which criminal charges must be brought, but the rape allegation could see charges brought as late as 2020.

Assange, who faces arrest if he tries to leave the embassy, has always vehemently denied the allegations and insisted the sexual encounters were consensual.

Ecuador has previously said it will only allow a hearing if Swedish authorities can guarantee that Assange will not be handed over to the United States where Assange fears he may face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted in connection with Wikileaks’ dissemination of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents.

Swedish prosecutors initially refused to travel to London to question Assange at the embassy, but changed their minds in March.