Please enter your login details

You can also sign in with your Sowetan LIVE
and Sport LIVE account details.
   Sign Up   Forgot password?

Sign in with:

 
  • All Share : 41413.44
    UNCHANGED0.00%
    Top 40 : 3353.49
    UNCHANGED0.00%
    Financial 15 : 12096.10
    UNCHANGED0.00%
    Industrial 25 : 47171.07
    UNCHANGED0.00%

  • ZAR/USD : 9.4046
    UP 0.05%
    ZAR/GBP : 14.2711
    UP 0.34%
    ZAR/EUR : 12.0730
    UP 0.04%
    ZAR/JPY : 0.0911
    UP 0.13%
    ZAR/AUD : 9.1583
    UP 0.23%

  • Gold : 1360.1000
    UP 0.37%
    Platinum : 1455.0000
    UP 0.28%
    Silver : 22.2600
    UP 0.16%
    Palladium : 738.5000
    UP 0.61%
    Brent Crude Oil : 104.640
    UNCHANGED0.00%

  • All data is delayed by 15 min. Data supplied by I-Net Bridge
    Hover cursor over this ticker to pause.

Sat May 18 10:49:03 SAST 2013

Ecuador foreign minister finds Assange charges 'hilarious'

Sapa-AFP | 05 July, 2012 06:19
Police officers stand outside Ecuador's embassy in London.
Image by: PAUL HACKETT / Reuters

Ecuador's foreign minister has said that rape and sexual assault cases lodged in Sweden against Julian Assange are laughable.

He added that no ruling has yet been made on the WikiLeaks founder's asylum application

"Personally, (I think) this is hilarious," Ecuadoran chief diplomat Ricardo Patino told reporters, explaining that Assange "is charged because his condom broke."

Assange is currently at the Ecuadoran embassy in London, seeking political asylum in the Latin American country.

Ecuadoran officials are examining the allegations of sexual misconduct in their review of Assange's application.

Patino said that one of the alleged victims filed a complaint, because she "realised that on certain nights, the condom broke."

Assange, an Australian, maintains he only had consensual sexual relations with the alleged victims.

WikiLeaks and Assange enraged the United States by publishing a flood of secret information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The website founder fears that if extradited to Sweden, he will be subsequently re-extradited to the United States to stand trial for espionage, on account of the 250,000 US diplomatic cables that were published.

British and Swedish authorities are awaiting Ecuador's decision regarding Assange's asylum application, but Patino reported that investigations into the claims of the two alleged victims are ongoing.

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa, who has often been at odds with Washington and offered Assange asylum in 2010, has said that the South American country will take its time considering the application.

SHARE YOUR OPINION

If you have an opinion you would like to share on this article, please send us an e-mail to the Times LIVE iLIVE team. In the mean time, click here to view the Times LIVE iLIVE section.