00:49Germany: Assange's letter to Hollande not a request for asylum - WikiLeaks spokesperson
WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson stated that Julian Assange’s letter to French President Francois Hollande “was not a formal application for asylum”, in an interview with RT in Berlin, Friday. According to Hrafnsson, Assange wrote the letter to the president as a reflection of the support he had received from France, including from French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who indicated that an asylum request would be welcomed, and from an open letter that was signed by “40 prominent individuals” urging the president to grant Assange asylum.
Despite Hrafnsson’s assertions, Hollande’s office issued a statement saying the request for asylum was rejected, after Assange’s letter was published by French newspaper Le Monde. In the letter Assange, the editor-in-chief of the transparency website WikiLeaks, said “my life is in danger” and “France is the only country that can offer me the necessary protection…against the political persecutions I face.”
Assange’s letter to the president comes days after WikiLeaks published documents showing that the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on three successive French leaders, including Hollande. The revelations prompted the French president to object to “unacceptable” spying directly to US President Barack Obama.
For the past three years Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge in order to avoid extradition to Sweden on alleged sexual offences.
00:49WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson stated that Julian Assange’s letter to French President Francois Hollande “was not a formal application for asylum”, in an interview with RT in Berlin, Friday. According to Hrafnsson, Assange wrote the letter to the president as a reflection of the support he had received from France, including from French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who indicated that an asylum request would be welcomed, and from an open letter that was signed by “40 prominent individuals” urging the president to grant Assange asylum.
Despite Hrafnsson’s assertions, Hollande’s office issued a statement saying the request for asylum was rejected, after Assange’s letter was published by French newspaper Le Monde. In the letter Assange, the editor-in-chief of the transparency website WikiLeaks, said “my life is in danger” and “France is the only country that can offer me the necessary protection…against the political persecutions I face.”
Assange’s letter to the president comes days after WikiLeaks published documents showing that the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on three successive French leaders, including Hollande. The revelations prompted the French president to object to “unacceptable” spying directly to US President Barack Obama.
For the past three years Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge in order to avoid extradition to Sweden on alleged sexual offences.