In 2012, the world's attention was riveted on the personality of the journalist Julian Assange, the founder of the world-famous organization WikiLeaks. This project has repeatedly published classified materials on corruption in the highest echelons of power, war crimes, spy scandals and secrets of diplomacy. The activities of WikiLeaks have become one of the reasons for the criminal prosecution against Assange.
Julian Assange at the end of June 2012 asked for political asylum from the Ecuadorian authorities. An Australian online journalist's request is being reviewed by the Australian Home Office. Until the final solution of the issue, Assange is hiding from the British authorities on the territory of the Ecuadorian embassy located in London.
In May 2012, the London Supreme Court ruled to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is suspected of a number of sexual crimes. The journalist himself rejects the charges against him and believes that the process launched against him has a political connotation. The persecution of Assange began after the publication of secret diplomatic correspondence by WikiLeaks. In the fall of 2010, many confidential documents of the US State Department were published, including the correspondence of diplomats, which was not subject to disclosure.
The British police issued an order to Julian Assange to appear at the police station to formalize the procedure for his expulsion to Sweden. The journalist ignored the summons, guided by the advice of his lawyers. The law allows him to refuse to report to the police until the Ecuadorian authorities have considered his application for political asylum. Under international law, consideration of the issue of political asylum has priority over the request for extradition.
Assange believes that if he is handed over to the Swedish authorities, he will immediately be extradited to the United States, where he will face prosecution for publishing top-secret materials. The actions of the notorious journalist and his organization can be qualified as espionage, for which Assange faces the death penalty in America.
The act of the founder of WikiLeaks, who decided to seek political asylum in Ecuador, came as a surprise even to his supporters. Assange himself said that he chose this method of combating the arbitrariness of the judicial authorities, since he does not see any other possibilities to avoid extradition to Sweden. The Ecuadorian Embassy confirmed the fact of applying for asylum and stated that until the government of this country finishes considering Assange's application, he will be on the territory of the embassy.
