

Julian Assange will be granted asylum, says official - andrewcooke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/14/julian-assange-asylum-ecuador-wikileaks

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Tyrannosaurs
It would seem unlikely that the UK government will grant him the safe pass
that they refer to.

Asylum is meant to be used for political charges and while there is a
suggestion that there are political motives around what is happening to
Assange the charges against him are criminal ones. That means that on paper
this is an abuse of the asylum process (and one which as a result actually
damages it) so it's possible or even probable that the UK government will
decline to grant him passage to Ecuador which leaves him exactly where he is
now - in the embassy in London with no way to get out.

One thing I don't understand is the idea that the US want him in Sweden so
they can extradite him to the US from there. Why not just extradite him from
the UK? The UK has a very favourable extradition policy, the government are
supportive of the US and likely to be more sympathetic than Sweden. It just
makes no sense to me. Yes things can get tied up in the UK courts but I doubt
that's different to Sweden.

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andrewcooke
NYT is reporting a denial -
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/world/americas/president-o...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/world/americas/president-
of-ecuador-denies-granting-asylum-to-julian-assange.html)

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sp332
Why is his mother referred to as "Ms Assange"?

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andrewcooke
it's not so unusual in the uk / europe. maybe she prefers it to mrs.

and the guardian isn't the kind of paper that will go out of its way to force
a woman's marital status down her throat...

~~~
sp332
OK I guess I was wrong but I was pretty sure she had remarried after divorcing
"Mr." Assange.

