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Slideshow Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read UPDATE 2-US hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight 15 Aug 2012 Britain warns Ecuador it could enter embassy to get Assange 15 Aug 2012 Ecuador grants asylum to Assange, angering Britain | 12:27pm EDT Militants attack major Pakistan air base; nine killed | 5:40am EDT Dallas mayor declares emergency over West Nile virus 15 Aug 2012 Discussed 138 Obama’s lead over Romney grows despite voters’ pessimism 122 Romney to announce vice presidential choice Saturday 94 Analysis: Are Israelis tough enough for a long war with Iran? Sponsored Links Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Life without sight A glimpse at the lives of visually impaired children and adults. Slideshow Quakes hit Iran The aftermath of two powerful quakes in northwest Iran. Slideshow Ecuador grants asylum to Assange, angering Britain Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Timeline: Ecuador grants WikiLeaks founder political asylum 9:26am EDT Assange feared life in jail in U.S. if asylum bid failed: lawyer 11:43am EDT Sweden summons Ecuador ambassador after Assange granted asylum 11:47am EDT UK's Hague says will not give Assange safe passage 12:27pm EDT Analysis & Opinion Exclusive: StanChart threat rings Fed alarm bells Why enhanced reputation could be the real legacy for Britain of London 2012 Related Topics World » Related Video Police arrest Assange supporters Wed, Aug 15 2012 Ecuador slams UK threat to storm embassy and nab Assange 1 of 10. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in this December 5, 2011 file photo. Ecuador has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on August 16, 2012 a day after the British government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest Assange. Credit: Reuters/Suzanne By Alessandra Prentice and Eduardo Garcia LONDON/QUITO | Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:27pm EDT LONDON/QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Thursday, a day after the British government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest the former hacker. Britain has said it is determined to extradite him to Sweden, where he is accused of rape and sexual assault, but Assange fears he will ultimately be sent to the United States which is furious that his WikiLeaks website has leaked hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables. Ecuador's decision is likely to deepen a political dispute over Assange's extradition with Britain, which said it was "disappointed" with the ruling, and sets the stage for possible further confrontation between the two countries. Patino said Ecuador feared for the safety of the Australian, who had lodged an asylum request with President Rafael Correa, a self-declared enemy of "corrupt" media and U.S. "imperialism". "Ecuador has decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange following the request sent to the President," Patino told a news conference in Quito. Patino said Assange's extradition to a third country without proper guarantees was probable, and that legal evidence showed he would not get a fair trial if eventually transferred to the United States. "This is a sovereign decision protected by international law. It makes no sense to surmise that this implies a breaking of relations (with Britain)," Patino added. Assange has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in central London for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden. Even after Thursday's decision his fate is still far from clear: Britain has promised to extradite him and the removal of the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status would expose him to immediate arrest by the British authorities. "We are disappointed," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "Under UK law, with Mr Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We shall carry out that obligation." EMBASSY STRESS? Outside the Ecuadorean embassy near London's famed Harrods department store, supporters relayed the announcement about his asylum request over a loudspeaker to cheers and clapping from protesters who had gathered outside the building. Supporters shouted: "The people united will never be defeated!", waving Ecuadorian flags and holding posters showing Assange's head, reading "no extradition". A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police before the decision was announced after tussles with police. It was unclear how long Assange could stay in the small embassy - housed on the ground floor of an apartment block - which is under 24-hour surveillance by British police. After the announcement, the BBC reported that Assange had thanked the staff in the London embassy for their support and had said to them: "things will get more stressful now". Britain has said it could use a little-known piece of legislation from 1987, introduced in the wake of the shooting of a British police officer outside the Libyan embassy in London, to strip Ecuador's embassy of its diplomatic status. The Ecuadorean government has bristled at the warning: its foreign minister said Britain was threatening Ecuador with a "hostile and intolerable act", comparing the action to Iran's storming of Britain's Tehran embassy 2011. "I've lived, worked and travelled in places with proper dictatorships and nowhere have I seen violations of the Vienna convention to this extent," said Farhan Rasheed, 42, a historian wearing an "I love Occupy" badge, outside the embassy. "Here we have a government which claims to be a government of law and justice, stretching and possibly about to break a serious binding international agreement." Britain's threat to withdraw diplomatic status from the Ecuadorean embassy also drew criticism from one of its own former diplomats who said it could lead to similar moves against British embassies. "I think the Foreign Office have slightly overreached themselves here," Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, told the BBC. "If we live in a world where governments can arbitrarily revoke immunity and go into embassies then the life of our diplomats and their ability to conduct normal business in places like Moscow where I was and North Korea becomes close to impossible." SEX CRIME? Assange, whom Sweden wants to question over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers in August 2010, says he fears Sweden could send him on to the United States. His supporters have said U.S. authorities want to punish him for publishing diplomatic cables which laid bare Washington's power-brokering across the globe. "The reaction he has is that he wants to underline that this (asylum) is a measure that is aimed at the U.S. and not against Sweden," said Per E Samuelsson, one of the lawyers representing Assange who talked to Assange after the decision. "He has sought political asylum in order to eliminate the risk that he will spend the rest of his life in prison in the United States," Samuelsson said. Ecuador said it had tried to get assurances from Britain and Sweden that Assange could not be extradited to a third country but that no assurance was given. Under European law, neither Britain nor Sweden could extradite anyone to a country where they might face the death penalty. Swedish prosecutors have not yet charged Assange, but they believe they have a case to take to trial and the lawyer for the two Swedish women who made the allegations against Assange said his clients deserved justice. "It's an abuse of the asylum instrument, the purpose of which is to protect people from persecution and torture if sent back to one's country of origin," Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two Swedish women, told Reuters. "It's not about that here. He doesn't risk being handed over to the United States for torture or the death penalty. He should be brought to justice in Sweden. This is completely absurd." (Additional reporting by London, Quito and Stockholm bureaux; Writing by Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn) World Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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