Julian Assange in new move to flee Britain for Ecuador



Julian Assange will ask judges in the Hague to allow him to flee Britain, lawyers said yesterday.

Assange’s legal team is preparing an application to the International Court of Justice to ask it to force the UK to approve his safe passage to South America.

The ICJ is the arbitration body for disputes between nations and could order Britain into negotiations.

Julian Assange's legal team is preparing to ask the International Court of Justice to force the UK to let him go to South America

Ecuador’s decision to grant the Wikileaks chief asylum last week has prompted a diplomatic rift. Its officials claim Britain had cut all contact with the South American country.

Ecuador accused Britain of threatening to storm its embassy in London after the Foreign Office said it could rescind the building’s diplomatic protection.

Assange, 41, has been living inside the embassy in Knightsbridge, West London, for two months after asking for asylum in June, following the failure of his Supreme Court appeal against his extradition to Sweden.

He claims that he cannot defend himself against rape and sexual assault claims there because of fears that he would be handed over to the US over publication by Wikileaks of thousands of diplomatic cables in 2010.

Police have watched the embassy round the clock since Assange was granted asylum.