Assange denies seeking asylum in France

In response to the open letter, Hollande’s office said that “on account of the legal elements and material situation of Mr Assange, France can not act on the request”.

“In a brief statement sent Friday, July 3 by the Elysee Palace, the President of the Republic has raised an objection of inadmissibility to the open letter of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who asked Paris to host it because ” his life is in danger “…

“My life is in danger,” Assange wrote in a letter to the Socialist president which was published by Le Monde newspaper.

Assange has denied wrongdoing and has taken his case to the Swedish Supreme Court, which rejected his request to list the arrest warrant.

The cynical and dismissive tone of this reply only underscores the gross hypocrisy of the French president, who issued numerous puffed-up declarations about freedom of the press in the wake of the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in January, perpetrated by two Islamist gunmen.

The French government, reacting to a letter from Julian Assange, said Friday it would not give the WikiLeaks founder asylum, only for his lawyers to claim he had never sought it in the first place. The French government has announced today it will not grant asylum to the fugitive.

“Only France finds itself in a position to offer me the necessary protection against… the political persecutions I face”.

Following the letter’s publication, Wikileaks tweeted that Mr Assange “did not submit an asylum application to France”.

In it, he wrote: “By welcoming me, France would carry out a humanitarian and symbolic gesture, sending encouragement to every journalist and whistleblower”. He says he fears if he goes to Sweden he’ll be extradited to the U.S. and charged over WikiLeaks’ release of classified documents.