Julian Assange, the founder of the controversial site WikiLeaks has not been granted safe passage to leave Britain, after he was granted asylum by Ecuador.
William Hague said that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face the rape charges he as against him. He said during a press conference, "We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not accept the principle of diplomatic asylum."
Assange, who is Australian by birth has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 19 after a 17 month legal battle. Wikileaks is one of the most controversial websites to come out of the woodwork in the recent past. He outed American government officials by publishing thousands of unheard, secret U.S. diplomatic cables. He also distributed Iraq and Afghan war dispatches in 2010. He is wanted in Sweden for a rape charge that he denies.
According to NBC News Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino said that he was following international law by providing asylum for Assange.
Patino said in a statement that there was a risk Assange would be taken to the U.S. and face unfair persecution where he could face the dealth penalty.
Tensions between Ecuador and Britain have been escalation over Britains efforts to stop Assange leaving the country. Pattino stated that British authorities have threatened to force their way into the embassy. The president of the National Assembly of Ecuador called a session for Thursday to discuss the threat against the embassy by the British government.
London has already warned Ecuaduar in writing earlier in the day that they are allowed to revoke the diplomatic status of a building if the power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post."
According to the New York Times, President Rafael Correa responed to this by saying, "We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over."
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