Columnists
High stakes drama to cheap soap opera
Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six years now. And the standoff about his tenure there continues.
Assange—who founded Wikileaks and attained fame when he published a bundle of top secret US intelligence cables, and then from his post in exile managed to post a bundle of documents from Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign that were initially hacked by the Russians— inspires critics and supporters with equal passion.
He took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after he lost an appeal to the British Supreme Court against his extradition to Sweden to face a sexual assault investigation. From there, it would have been a hop, skip and jump to extradition to the US to face treason charges and a possible death penalty. Sweden has now dropped its investigation, and therefore that risk of extradition has faded. However, he breached bail terms in Britain, and is therefore subject to arrest in that country should he ever emerge from his refuge in the embassy.
He still fears that the US might request his extradition from Britain while he is in British custody. Assange’s British lawyers appeared before a judge earlier this year to try to get his arrest warrant expunged, but a very tartly worded judgement offered him little sympathy, essentially saying it was his choice to skip bail and therefore he must live with the consequences. And so he sits, a holdout in the embassy. Six years and counting.
Assange must be going stir crazy. How many episodes of Coronation Street can one man endure? How much Ecuadorian cuisine can one man stomach? He must be getting pale and stale, never having come out of the embassy compound. He has missed attending all kinds of major life events, like the wedding of Harry and Meghan. And he must be getting tired of the company at the embassy: there must be a finite number of people he can play a round or two of Scrabble with. It’s also not clear how many changes of socks and underwear he brought with him when he took refuge in the embassy: one only hopes that it has good laundry facilities.
Of course, his hosts are no doubt also going crazy. When they originally offered him sanctuary, the Ecuadorians probably never dreamed that they would be inviting in a houseguest who was going to measure his visit in years. And the Ecuadorians are giving signs that they are fed up with him. They took away his computer temporarily back in March, and have now laid down the law concerning his cat, Michi. Apparently, Assange is not a very tidy housekeeper, especially in the matter of cat hygiene, and has been told that if he doesn’t clean up after it he will be delivered into Russian hands to be looked after—sans cat. (Assange is very fond of the cat, and, like most cat owners the world over, has posted fetching videos on Instagram.)
Assange has responded to the ‘clean up your act’ order by doing what most of us would naturally think of in such a circumstance: he has sued the Ecuadorian government for “violating his fundamental rights and freedoms.” It will be interesting to see how the courts handle that one, although I would wager a little money that he won’t get a sympathetic hearing. Something about the difference between being a tenant and being a guest. An admonition to clean up his act—and his room—would be all many would expect him to get. Any teenager would receive the same message.
There was a rumour a few weeks ago that Assange and his unnerved hosts were negotiating a deal with the British authorities, but nothing came of it.
And so the world waits. Will Assange make the first move and walk out to face his fate in the British justice system? Will the Ecuadorians continue to put up with him, or give him the boot into the hands of the British. Or will they pass him over to the Russians with his diplomatic protection intact?
More importantly, will the British equivalent of the humane society step in to protect Michi the cat? Will Michi and Assange be parted? Will Michi still feature in Instagram videos? The online world needs to know.
What was once a high stakes drama is playing out like a cheap soap opera. To quote a well know Twitter user, “Sad.”
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