Ecuador Internacional

'Ecuador's demands are against Swedish law'

The Local 07/08/2015

Foto: The Local

Foto: The Local

Ecuador's conditions for allowing Swedish prosecutors access to its UK embassy to question Julian Assange are not permitted by Swedish legislation, Ministry of Justice officials said on Friday.

Sweden's sexual assault inquiry on Julian Assange is being pinched by time, with the statute of limitations about to expire on some of the charges and investigators unable to access Ecuador's embassy in London to question the WikiLeaks founder.

Swedish prosecutors petitioned Ecuador in June to interview Assange, who has been holed up in the embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of rape and sexual assault – charges Assange vehemently denies.

But access has thus far been prevented on procedural grounds, with both countries essentially blaming each other for the delay. On Friday Swedish officials criticized conditions drawn up by Ecuador for allowing the interview to take place.

“The demands are in complete violation of our principles of justice,” Cecilia Riddselius at the Ministry of Justice told the TT newswire on Friday.

“As a condition to let Assange be heard they [Ecuador] have demanded a special agreement in which Sweden recognizes asylum status for Assange. But the government cannot make such a commitment because it is the Migration Board which decides whether or not a person has the right to asylum,” she added.

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