A sunlamp, treadmill and internet cable: The threadbare room inside the Ecuadorian embassy where Julian Assange is hiding... as police wait outside to pounce



Wikileaks rebel is granted political asylum amid chaotic scenes yesterday

Could he be smuggled to the airport inside a diplomatic bag?

Police and crowds remain outside Victorian mansion in Knightsbridge



Tense stalemate could see cost of keeping tabs on Assange and his supporters spiral



Assange vows to take Britain to the world court is he is refused a safe passage to Ecuador



Wikileaks rebel Julian Assange remained holed up in a stuffy room at the Ecuadorian embassy today surrounded by dozens of police officers waiting to pounce.



The fugitive has just a sunlamp, a running machine and internet connection in the threadbare room inside the ground-floor apartment in Knightsbridge.

The curtains are almost always closed to prevent people looking in. And a short walk down the worn corridor he can find a small water dispenser.



Without sunlight or fresh air, friends fear that he is slowly verging towards depression. Only recently has a blow-up bed been swapped for a proper mattress.

One step outside the building and the whistleblower will be arrested by one of around 40 officers, who remained on guard today.

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We're going in guv'nor: Police officers enter the Ecuadorian embassy in Knighstbridge this morning, with Mr Assange holed up inside

And back out again: The bobbies return empty handed as the prospect looms of an expensive stand-off lasting months - or even years

Mr Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual assault, which he claims are politically motivated. He fears he will be sent to the U.S. where he is wanted for releasing secret diplomatic information.



The computer whiz shot to international prominence in 2010 after he began publishing a huge trove of American diplomatic and military secrets - including a quarter million U.S. Embassy cables that shed a harsh light on the backroom dealings of U.S. diplomats.



There was little sign of a breakthrough this morning after the Latin American country granted Mr Assange, 41, political asylum amid chaotic scenes yesterday.

Three police vans remained parked around the building this morning. They have a watch on all possible exits and stand ready to act if crowds get out of control.

Some 30 policemen were posted outside the building, while there were believed to be more inside.

It is said that they are standing on stairwells and blocking the lift, which could be used to take Mr Assange to the roof of the building to a helicopter.

Inside the embassy, senior police are understood to be having tense discussions with embassy officials on how to resolve the situation.

Throughout the morning officers went back and forth through the glass entrance.



Facing off the police were a small throng of Mr Assange's supporters gathered on a pavement opposite the mansion.



There were only around 20 there today, compared with the 50 or so that had gathered yesterday.



'Tense and restive': Julian Assange has just a treadmill for exercise, a sunlamp and internet connection inside the Ecuadorian embassy

One bystander outside the embassy told the Mail Online that the atmosphere was 'calmer' today.



He said that it was the same crowd of people as yesterday, but support on the ground was 'scant'.

They added: 'Some of the protesters are sleeping on the pavement. Others are just milling about chatting, and fooling around.

'They're from the same crowd that was here yesterday but things are a lot calmer at the minute. People seem to be resigned to the fact that it's not going to be resolved any time soon.

'Police are coming and going into the embassy but nobody knows what's being said.'

But despite the apparently dwindling support for the activist, some protesters were today vowing to camp outside the embassy 'for as long as necessary’.

Talking while a speaker brought by Assange supporters blares Queen’s 'we will rock you', a supporter of the Anonymous hacking group, who declined to give his name, said: 'We plan to be here for as long as necessary,' the man, wearing a face mask said.

'Most people will definitely be here until Sunday for when he makes his statement.

'Depending on what the statement is we will see from there.

'Most people will be not able to stay the whole time for personal reasons but we will try to keep a flowing presence here like occupy (the occupy St Paul’s movement) was.

'I came here this morning after I heard about the threat by the British government, they claimed they were going in and taking him from a sovereign embassy which is against everything the British stand for.'



A Foreign Office spokesman told the Mail Online that there was no timescale in place for how long the stalemate could continue.



They said: 'Our position is that we still hope that we can reach an amicable and negotiable solution.

'In terms of how long it can continue, it's a problem for Mr Assange and Ecuador in terms of how long they can tolerate the situation where he's living there. We don't have a timescale in place.'

The Met said they were prepared to police the embassy for as long as necessary.

They said diplomatic officers trained in embassy protection were being used, in addition to public order police to control the protesters.

A spokesman added: 'As long as somebody is there who is liable for arrest we will have a sufficient number of officers there to police the embassy.

'The numbers of officers are always changing in response to live events so we can't put a figure on how many are there at any one time. But it will always be proportionate to the situation.'

The police refused to give an estimation of how much the operation had cost so far, or how much it was likely to if it continued unresolved.

Guard: A policeman looks at a balcony, that could be used by Mr Assange when he addresses crowds on Sunday

Television cameras stand behind a barrier plastered with posters supporting the internet whistle blower whose activities infuriated the U.S.

Britain has said it may use a little-known law to revoke the Ecuadorean embassy's status. This will see officers storm the building so that Assange could be taken into custody and extradited to Sweden.



Mr Assange will be arrested if he steps foot outside the embassy. He either needs to plot an escape route to Ecuador or hope that negotiations prove successful.



One possible route of a helicopter landing on the roof of the building has been ruled out as Mr Assange would need to use the lift - classed as communal territory - to reach it.



The police are prepared to arrest him even if he leaves while handcuffed to a diplomat.



In the event that Mr Assange makes a dash for freedom, they could become embroiled in clashes with police.

This tense scene raised the prospect that Mr Assange could be smuggled out inside a 'jiffy bag', as diplomatic parcels cannot be opened by foreign police.

Mr Assange is due to address crowds outside the embassy at 2pm on Sunday. He could do so from an open window or, one even leaning from of the balconies flanked by Ecuadorian officials.



Today he vowed to take Britain to the United Nation's International Court of Justice if he is refused a safe passage to Ecuador, his lawyer said.



Baltasar Garzon, the lawyer who indicted ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, said Britain was acting far beyond its authority.



'They have to comply with diplomatic and legal obligations under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and respect the sovereignty of a country that has granted asylum,' he told El Pais.



Friends say that Mr Assange is becoming 'restive and tense' having been inside the embassy for two months.



'He's bored, but wouldn't you be if you were stuck inside a small space for two months?' a friend told The Times.

Visitors are said to be trying desperately to keep up the spirits of Mr Assange by playing music to him and encouraging him to dance. His assistant Sarah Harrison often stays at the embassy late into the evening, as does Wikileaks spokesman Joseph Farrell.

In a sign of how concerned Mr Assange is about British law, he refuses to remove the electronic tag imposed on him as part of bail conditions, which he broke by taking up home at the Ecuadorian embassy.

The embassy occupies half the ground floor of the Victorian mansion, with neighbours above including members of the Saudi royal family.



Fiasco: A taxi driver falls for a hoax call from a prankster yesterday who ordered a cab to the airport for the Wikileaks rebel. Takeaway pizzas, and a number more cabs were also ordered

A diplomatic bag similar to the type that could be used to smuggle Mr Assange into south America. His would, of course, have Ecuadorian markings and not U.S.

A portrait of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa - a new found friend of Mr Assange - hangs in the lobby.

There is little prospect of Mr Assange leaving unnoticed through a secret route.

Yesterday more than 40 policemen surrounded the building in central London to ensure the Australian could not be smuggled out.



Ensuring no escape bids were made, a further six officers were stationed in the communal areas of the building, guarding lifts and access to the roof, as part of an operation that will cost at least £50,000 a day.

To prevent the use of a diplomatic parcel being used to courier Mr Assange to an airport, police have been be equipped with heat detection equipment. There were even suggestions that Mr Assange could be smuggled out inside furniture.



A sofa, wardrobe or set of drawers could all function as hideout for him to reach a waiting car.

'If a man-shaped diplomatic bag is seen emerging from the Ecuadorian Embassy and we prod it with pitchfork to confirm that it only contains diplomatic items, a squeak of ''Ouch!'' would give us all the legal options we needed to ask the Embassy yo undo it and show us who or what is therein,' former British Ambassador Charles Crawford said.

Under diplomatic convention, a diplomatic courier is immune, but the packages are not supposed to contain people.



The alternative would be that Mr Assange lives at the embassy for months - or even years - costing tens of millions in police costs.

Supporters of Julian Assange, who faces extradition to Sweden, gather outside the Ecuador embassy in Knightsbridge yesterday Scuffles: A supporter of Julian Assange is hauled away by police outside the Ecuador embassy as the crowd grew. It is not known whether he was arrested A supporter holds a Free Assange poster, and right, a protester grapples with police



'Free speech... f*** yeah!: The bizarre message on a placard waved by one of Mr Assange's followers as crowds chanted 'hands off Ecuador' and 'Julian Assange freedom fighter'

Scores of his supporters added to the exciteable scenes yesterday chanting ‘hands off Ecuador’ and ‘Julian Assange freedom fighter’.

Many of them wore masks associated with the Anonymous hacking group that has attacked government websites.

There was applause as the Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, declared that Assange had been given ‘diplomatic asylum’ at a press conference in the capital, Quito.

‘We believe that his fears are legitimate and there are the threats that he could face political persecution,' the minister said.

'We trust that that the UK will offer as soon as possible the guarantee for the safe passage of asylum for Mr Assange and they will respect those international agreements they have signed in the past.’

Yesterday, less than 24 hours after threatening to rescind the building’s diplomatic protections and forcibly enter it, the Foreign Office was forced into a humiliating climbdown.

It accepted the need for a ‘a negotiated solution’ to the deadlock and was reduced to insisting that Mr Assange would be arrested if he tried to leave.

If an agreement is not reached and he cannot escape, he could be forced to spend months or even years in legal limbo inside the embassy building, where he has until recently been forced to sleep on a blow-up bed.

Company: Ecuadorian Ambassador Ana Alban smiles from inside the embassy in London where Mr Assange is currently being housed

Getaway car? A dark BMW with the number plate 'I ECU' sits outside the embassy yesterday. Perhaps such a vehicle will be used to smuggle the fugitive to a waiting plane

Ministers’ only option appears to be to encourage other countries to put pressure on Ecuador to agree a deal.

The row over Mr Assange’s future erupted on Wednesday night when Ecuador’s foreign minister went public with a note from the British charge d’affairs threatening to use an obscure law to rescind the building’s diplomatic status, storm the building and make the arrest.

British officials said it was an attempt to ‘rattle their cage’ but Mr Patino reacted with fury, claiming such a move would be seen as a ‘hostile act’.

Announcing the decision to award ‘diplomatic asylum’ in a televised statement yesterday, he said Mr Assange was a victim of political persecution and could face the death penalty if sent to the US by Sweden.

The WikiLeaks founder yesterday described the move as a 'significant and historic victory' for an 'independent Latin American nation'.

The decision was condemned by Foreign Secretary William Hague who said asylum was being used ‘for the purposes of escaping the regular processes of the court.’

He added: ‘No one, least of all the government of Ecuador, should be in any doubt that we are determined to carry out our legal obligation to see Mr Assange extradited to Sweden.

‘This is not about Mr Assange’s activities at WikiLeaks or the attitude of the United States of America.

'He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offences.’