That Didn't Take Long. Is This Assange's Reward?

Is Julian Assange getting an early Christmas present? A week after Donald Trump's election victory and six years after Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a Swedish prosecutor went to the British capital to visit Assange in the embassy.

Assange's team said he agreed to the interview "in part to ensure the Swedish authorities have no further excuse not to discontinue their investigation".

Swedish assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren was present at the interview, which was conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor.

The fact that Swedish prosecutors were present but not the Swedish defence counsel was "incredibly problematic", [Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson] said – but they had decided to proceed anyway.

"We have been offering his testimony since 2010 and the Swedish prosecutor has refused to hear his side of the story until now."

It's amazing how the wheels of justice can suddenly free up and I'm sure the election result and a grateful president-elect had absolutely no bearing on it.

South America Backs Ecuador on Assange Asylum

This takes everything to a whole new level.   The 12-foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations have joined in support of a resolution backing Ecuador in granting asylum to Julian Assange and calling for a negotiated settlement.

"We reiterate the right of states to grant political and diplomatic asylum," the bloc's joint statement read.

Ministers at the UNASUR meeting ...were also critical of Britain's role in the diplomatic conflict, expressing "solidarity with and support for the government of Ecuador in the face of threats against its embassy in Britain."

Oh my, my.  It's curious to see so many South American countries showing this degree of solidarity and defiance of their Western "betters."   This is not the way we brought them up to behave.

Julian Assange Granted Asylum

The Guardian reports that Ecuador has granted Julian Assange political asylum.   Given that the WikiLeaks founder remains holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, it's unclear whether asylum will mean he gets to stay there indefinitely.

"Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange," said an official in the Ecuadorean capital Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions.
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..it remains unclear if giving Assange asylum will allow him to leave Britain and fly to Ecuador, or amounts to little more than a symbolic gesture. At the moment he faces the prospect of arrest as soon as he leaves the embassy for breaching his bail conditions.

"For Mr Assange to leave England, he should have a safe pass from the British [government]. Will that be possible? That's an issue we have to take into account," Patino told Reuters on Tuesday.

Government sources in Quito confirmed that despite the outstanding legal issues Correa would grant Assange asylum – a move which would annoy Britain, the US and Sweden. They added that the offer was made to Assange several months ago, well before he sought refuge in the embassy, and following confidential negotiations with senior London embassy staff.

...Ecuadorean diplomats believe Assange is at risk of being extradited from Sweden to the US, where he could face the death penalty. Assange's supporters claim the US has already secretly indicted him following WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of US diplomatic cables, as well as classified Afghan and Iraq war logs.

Correa and Patiño have both said that Ecuador will take a sovereign decision regarding Assange. They say they view his case as a humanitarian act, and are seeking to protect Assange's right to life and freedom. On Monday the state-run newspaper El Telégrafo confirmed a decision had been made, although the paper did not specify what that decision was. It said that senior officials had been meeting in the past few days to iron out the last legal details.