jimf

Someone has outstayed his welcome...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...e-says-ecuador

Britain rejects request to grant Julian Assange diplomatic status amid reports of Ecuadorean citizenship

BritInParis

The novelty has obviously worn off. Five years is probably less than he would have ever served in a Swedish prison if found guilty. Even if his paranoia about being sent to the US was true if he had faced the music he would've likely be freed alongside Pvt. Manning by now.

caretaker

5 years in an embassy is probably preferable to 1 year in Leavenworth.

BritInParis

Probably but either way he's still wasted five years of his life.

caretaker

A dangerous business.

dave_j

Why is he still there? It cannot have been outside the resources of a nation and all of it's interests to have spirited him away in some fashion and I refuse to believe that at sometime in the past five years security hasn't lapsed just a little at times. I think he could have left any time he wanted. But you then have to ask where could he go? Well with the resources available, just about anywhere really.

So you have to ask yourselves why he's still there? Could it be that he really does fear that once out in the wide world the US will decide that he needs to be made an example of, but would it end there? Perhaps he knows a little too much.. or perhaps people think that he does.

caretaker

He probably had to agree not to run before they accepted him; Ecuador has it's own political image to consider and giving him protection is one thing, but helping to spirit him away is another.

BristolUK

He probably left a while ago and a series of different actor/lookalikes have filled in for him since.

DigitalGhost

I think it's clear that was only a ploy. America would have made an example with him. After all it is the country that often treats people accused of cyber crime more harshly than those who have committed firearms offences.

BritInParis

Under normal circumstances I would agree, but since Manning was sentenced to 35 years for espionage and was released after less than seven, why do that for one and not the other.

DigitalGhost

Depends on what you know or they think you know and how much of a liability you're considered to be I suppose.

America is like a despot state when it comes to any form of perceived cyber crime. If you've ever got a few minutes spare and fancy a good read then I'd recommend one of the articles about the German teenager who stole an early version of Half Life 2 and nearly ensnared by Valve and the US authorities.

BritInParis

Yeah, I'm fully aware of how they treated people like Gary McKinnon, and under normal circumstances I would agree with you, but given how politicised this was I can't see Obama releasing Manning but not Assange for effectively the same crime. This all predisposes that Assange would have been extradited to the US in the first place obviously.