Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was finally granted political asylum by
Ecuador Thursday, two months after he took refuge in the Andean
nation's London embassy while fighting extradition from Britain to
Sweden.
Assange took refuge at the embassy in June to avoid
extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over assault and rape
claims, which he denies, BBC reported.
Ecuador said there were
fears Assange's human rights might be violated, with Foreign minister
Ricardo Patino accusing Britain of making an "open threat" to enter its
embassy to arrest Assange.
Britain's Foreign Office said the
decision on Assange's application for political asylum would not affect
the country's legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.
It
tweeted: "We remain committed to a negotiated solution that allows us to
carry out our obligations under the Extradition Act."
Ecuador's
foreign minister made the announcement of granting political asylum to
Assange in a live televised broadcast Thursday, RIA Novosti reported.
"In
accordance with our policies, the government of Ecuador decided to
grant political asylum to Julian Assange," Patino said in the Ecuadorian
capital, Quito.
On Wednesday, Ecuador said that the British
government had raised the possibility of forcibly removing Assange from
the London-based embassy. He had been under house arrest in Britain
since December 2010.
Politicians in the US called for Assange to
be prosecuted - or even assassinated - after WikiLeaks disseminated
thousands of US diplomatic cables as well as a video that showed an
American military helicopter crew killing a Reuters photographer and
several other civilians in Iraq.
The WikiLeaks founder had been under house arrest in Britain since December 2010.
