Global/International

Why Asylum For Julian Assange Is Central To Today’s Politics: Torture and the American Character

By James Justice

As the Philippine government dithered and made excuses for its grossly inadequate response to the catastrophic floods — which inundated 80% of the country's capital, Manila — Sonny Melencio was leading a grassroots relief effort that brought the first food supplies in days to some of the poorest and most badly affected communities.

Below are three key speeches in the evolving Assange extradition case, Ecuador's Foreign Minister granting Assange asylum, UK's Foreign Minister rejection of this claim and Julian Assange's speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy.

The first speech below is translation of the statement from the Ecuadorean Foreign Minister arguing the case for their right to grant Julian Assange asylum. At the end of this statement follows the UK Foreign Minister's statement suprisingly arguing their case against ensuring Julian Assange's safe passage and exposing an intention to apprehend and extradite Julian Assange (and in what goes against the UK's history and respect at all costs in adhering to the right to all forms of asylum despite their most recent statement). The last speech is by Julian Assange from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy on the 19th August 2012.

On June 19, 2012, the Australian national Mr. Julian Assange appeared at the premises of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to request that the Ecuadorean State provide him with diplomatic protection, thus invoking the existing Diplomatic Asylum rules. The applicant had made his asylum request based on his fear of eventual political persecution by a third country, the same country whom could use his extradition to the Kingdom of Sweden to enable an expedited subsequent extradition.