France rejects asylum request from WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange

Mr Assange denies the assault claims and has been living at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.

France says it can’t act on Assange’s request.

The Elysee Palace declined Assange’s appeal in a statement released in Paris, shortly after the letter was published.

LONDON: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has denied that he filed for an asylum request to France.

A statement from Mr Hollande’s office said it had reviewed the request and decided not to grant Mr Assange asylum.

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. It came after the French government indicated that such asylum may be granted in the wake of revelations of alleged NSA surveillance of senior French officials. “He is also the target of a European arrest warrant”, it noted.

Assange asked France for “the necessary protection” needed against his “political persecution”. Such an offer of protection would be a “humanitarian and symbolic gesture” and send a message of encouragement “to journalists and whistleblowers around the world”.

On its Twitter feed, WikiLeaks insisted that Assange “has not submitted an asylum application to France” despite some media reports to the contrary.

The charges were trumped up by a Swedish prosecutor either to silence Assange by jailing him for a lengthy period or to facilitate his extradition to the United States for trial and possible execution under the Espionage Act.

He has said he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks.