Assange on Embassy: I Could Be Here a Year

Hopes Sweden will drop case
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 31, 2012 8:18 AM CDT
Assange on Embassy: I Could Be Here a Year
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, talks with his legal adviser Baltasar Garzon, right, inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Sunday Aug. 19, 2012.   (AP Photo / Sean Dempsey, PA)

Waiting for the next chapter in Julian Assange's story? Don't hold your breath: The WikiLeaks founder says he could stick around in Ecuador's London embassy for six months to a year. "I think the situation will be solved through diplomacy," he said in an interview with Ecuadorean TV that aired yesterday. "The Swedish government could drop the case. I think this is the most likely scenario," he noted, saying a resolution would likely come "in between six and 12 months," Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, Ecuador—which has offered Assange asylum—and the UK have resumed discussions over the matter. While Britain says it's required to send Assange to Sweden, Ecuador has said it believes Assange would give himself up to Sweden if Britain could guarantee that the WikiLeaks founder wouldn't be sent anywhere else. Is Assange in step with that plan? Maybe. "At some point, if the way has been paved," he said in the interview, continuing, "it would not be correct to hold me in prison (in Sweden) without charges." (More Julian Assange stories.)

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