Assange's seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy

On 19 June 2012, the Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Pati�o, announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that his government was considering the request, and that Assange was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Wikileaks insiders stated that Assange made the decision to seek asylum because he felt abandoned by the Australian government. The Australian attorney-general at the time, Nicola Roxon, had written a letter to Assange's legal representative, Jennifer Robinson, in which she wrote that Australia would not seek to involve itself in any international exchanges about Assange's future. She also wrote that "should Mr. Assange be convicted of any offence in the United States and a sentence of imprisonment imposed, he may apply for an international prisoner transfer to Australia". Assange's lawyers described the letter as a "declaration of abandonment". Assange and his supporters state he is concerned not about any proceedings in Sweden as such, but believe that his deportation to Sweden could lead to politically motivated deportation to the United States, where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks.

On 16 August 2012, Pati�o announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him. In its formal statement, Ecuador reasoned that "as a consequence of [Assange's] determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of press� in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or personal integrity will be in danger". Latin American states expressed support for Ecuador. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa confirmed on 18 August that Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely,  and the following day Assange gave his first speech from the balcony. Assange's supporters forfeited �293,500 in bail and sureties. An office converted into a studio apartment, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill, and kitchenette, became his home from then until 11 April 2019.

Just before Assange was granted asylum, the UK government wrote to Pati�o stating that the police were entitled to enter the embassy and arrest Assange under UK law. Pati�o criticised what he said was an implied threat, stating that "such actions would be a blatant disregard of the Vienna Convention". Officers of the Metropolitan Police Service were stationed outside the building from June 2012 to October 2015 in order to arrest Assange for extradition and for breach of bail, should he leave the embassy. The police guard was withdrawn on grounds of cost in October 2015, but the police said they would still deploy "a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him". The cost of the policing for the period was reported to have been �12.6 million. 

In April 2015, during a video conference to promote the documentary Terminal F about Edward Snowden, Bolivia's ambassador to Russia, Mar�a Luisa Ramos Urzagaste, accused Assange of putting the life of Bolivian president Evo Morales at risk by intentionally providing the United States with false rumours that Snowden was on the president's plane when it was forced to land in Vienna in July 2013 after France, Spain and Italy denied access to their airspace. "It is possible that in this wide-ranging game that you began my president did not play a crucial role, but what you did was not important to my president, but it was to me and the citizens of our country. And I have faith that when you planned this game you took into consideration the consequences", the ambassador told Assange. Assange stated that the plan "was not completely honest, but we did consider that the final result would have justified our actions. We weren't expecting this outcome. The result was caused by the United States' intervention. We can only regret what happened."

In an interview the following month with Democracy Now!, Assange explained the story of the grounding of Morales' plane, saying that after the United States cancelled Snowden's passport, WikiLeaks thought about other strategies to take him to Latin America, and they considered private presidential jets of those countries which offered support. The appointed jet was that of Venezuelan president, Nicol�s Maduro, but Assange stated that "our code language that we used deliberately swapped the presidential jet that we were considering for the Bolivian jet ... and in some of our communications, we deliberately spoke about that on open lines to lawyers in the United States. And we didn't think much more of it. ... We didn't think this was anything more than just distracting." Eventually, the plan was not pursued and, under Assange's advice, Snowden sought asylum in Russia. 

Paris newspaper Le Monde, in its edition of 3 July 2015, published an open letter from Assange to French President Fran�ois Hollande in which Assange urged the French government to grant him refugee status. Assange wrote that "only France now has the ability to offer me the necessary protection against, and exclusively against, the political persecution that I am currently the object of." In the letter Assange wrote, "By welcoming me, France would fulfill a humanitarian but also probably symbolic gesture, sending an encouragement to all journalists and whistleblowers ... Only France is now able to offer me the necessary protection ... France can, if it wishes, act."

On 11 April 2019, the Metropolitan Police�whom Ecuadorian authorities had invited into the embassy�arrested Assange in connection with his failure to surrender to the court in June 2012 for extradition to Sweden.  Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno stated that Ecuador withdrew Assange's asylum after he repeatedly violated international conventions regarding domestic interference. He was found guilty of breaching his bail conditions later that afternoon. Assange was carrying Gore Vidal's History of the National Security State during his arrest.

Courtesy : Wikipedia