Julian Assange's lawyer admits Ecuadorian asylum bid 'makes him look like a suspect'

Jerome Taylor
Friday 22 June 2012

... Speaking to The Independent as Mr Assange prepared to spend a fourth night inside the cramped embassy, Thomas Olsson said he understood why some felt his client’s actions might make it look like he was “running away from his responsibilities”.

“It makes him look like a suspect in the public’s eye and it allows his enemies to portray him as someone who is trying to avoid these charges <in Sweden>,” he said. “But the threat of extradition to the United States is substantial” ...

Sweden, however, has pursued an extradition request over allegations that Mr Assange sexually assaulted two women in the summer of 2010. The WikiLeaks founder denies the charges but refuses to travel to Sweden to be interrogated because he believes it is part of a wider plot to eventually transfer him to the States. After taking his fight as far as the Surpreme Court he has has now exhausted all legal avenues to halt the extradition.

One of two lawyers representing Mr Assange in those proceedings, Mr Olsson insisted that the WikiLeaks founder would “leave Sweden a free man” if he agreed to face the charges. But he understood why his client had chosen to seek asylum because the threat from the United States “is not just hypothetical” ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/julian-assanges-lawyer-admits-ecuadorian-asylum-bid-makes-him-look-like-a-suspect-7876458.html