Assange: WikiLeaks leader

After spending more than £10 million protecting wanted WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who is holed in the Ecuador Embassy on asylum in London, Britain said on Thursday that it would lodge a formal protest with Ecuador.

Assange, mastermind of the biggest diplomatic information leaks in US history, is wanted in Sweden for alleged sex crimes.

British Foreign Office Minister, Hugo Swire, said Ecuador must recognise that its decision to harbour Mr Assange more than three years ago, had hampered justice from following its proper course .

British police guards the embassy building in the upmarket central London neighborhood of Knightsbridge day and night ever since, at an estimated cost of more than £10 million pounds.

Swire said it was completely unacceptable that the British taxpayer has had to foot the bill for this abuse of diplomatic relations.

The comments came after Swedish prosecutors dropped inquiries into three allegations of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion against the 44-year-old Australian, as they had run out of time to press charges.

However, they said they would push on with an investigation into an allegation of rape in 2010, leveled against him.

Swire said Assange, who denied any wrongdoing, had been held in Ecuador’s London embassy since June 2012, to avoid being extradited to Sweden.

“The WikiLeaks founder fears he will be extradited to the U.S. where he could be tried for one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.

“He has published thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables five years ago, which infuriated Washington,’’ he said.

Swire said Assange breached his bail conditions to go to the embassy.

He added that Britain still had a legal obligation to extradite Assange, while the rape allegation remained outstanding.

“I have instructed our ambassador in Quito to reiterate to Ecuador that the continuing failure to expedite the Swedish Prosecutor’s interview, and to bring this situation to an end, is being seen as a growing stain on the country’s reputation.

(Reuters/NAN)