Assange: Onus lies on UK to find a way out of the mess

The 41-year-old Assange was sought in Sweden after two female former Wikileaks volunteers accused him of committing sexual offences against them during his stay in Stockholm in 2010 for a lecture. According to Assange, he did not commit any crime for the sex was consensual and all the allegations levelled against him were deliberate ploys.

For him, the strategy lied in extraditing him to the USA from Sweden. The fate of Bradley Manning made him all the more perturbed. Assange tried to reopen his appeal against the extradition but the Supreme Court of the UK dismissed his plea and gave the former a two-week grace period and he slipped into the Ecuadorian embassy during that period, sheltering himself behind diplomatic immunity.

Sweden, on the other hand, although said it would not extradite Assange to the USA if he faced the death penalty there but it also reportedly refused Ecuador's request for not extraditing Assange to the USA. The Swedish government has also turned down Quito's appeal to interrogate Assange at the embassy in London. President Correa has clearly said that Assange should be given a guarantee that he would not be sent to a third country in case he agreed to go to Sweden to face the court there.

The onus clearly lies on the UK, the host country, to find a way out of the prevailing logjam as any effort to arrest Assange or deny him an exit would complicate the issue further. Ecuador has also said that it would appeal to the International Court of Justice if Assange was not given a safe exit from the UK.

What is Australia doing?

Assange's home country has not done anything remarkable till now apart from observing the progress and providing consular services to Assange. However, not all are happy back home. Assange's supporters (read Justice4Assange) have said that the Australian government actually abandoned him by not taking up his case and that it was allowing other countries to tamper with its legal business and putting its image at risk. Former British diplomat Charles Crawford, however, felt that Australia was doing it right and might like to have a talk with Ecuador to tell the late that extending a 'diplomatic asylum' to Assange was a questionable move as per the spirit of the Vienna Convention.

For Crawford, if Assange is given a safe exit to Sweden where he faces law over the sexual offences and that if he is assured by both the UK and Sweden that he will not be extradited to any other country, including the USA, then all parties will be happy. Ecuador will see its position justified, the UK will get rid of its headache while Sweden will be happy to have got Assange. For the Wikileaks founder, avoiding an extradition to the USA will be the biggest gain. And he can always spend his remaining days of his life in Ecuador.