Ecuador Grants Assange Asylum, Riling U.K.

LONDON—Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, setting the stage for a standoff between the Andean nation and the U.K., which vowed to extradite Mr. Assange to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual-assault investigation.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, told reporters in Quito that the country had granted Mr. Assange asylum to protect him from "political persecution" in the U.S., which Mr. Assange says wants to prosecute him for WikiLeaks' role in publishing thousands of classified U.S. government documents.

A Justice Department spokesman on Tuesday declined to comment on Mr. Assange. The U.S. hasn't charged him with any crime and has no extradition request.

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a news conference that Britain wouldn't guarantee safe passage for Mr. Assange and reiterated his intent to uphold the U.K.'s obligation to extradite the WikiLeaks boss. He also suggested the U.K. could use a little-known 1987 law to enter the Ecuadorian embassy and arrest Mr. Assange. Mr. Hague said the standoff could amount to a waiting game of months or even years. "There are no time limits," he said.

Mr. Patino didn't explain how Ecuador planned to transport Mr. Assange from Ecuador's embassy in London to Ecuador.

Mr. Assange requested asylum at Ecuador's embassy on June 19, in an attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped one woman and molested another during a trip to Stockholm in 2010. He denies the allegations, and he hasn't been charged with wrongdoing.

The WikiLeaks founder has long suggested that the Swedish investigation is politically motivated and backed by Washington as a way to speed what he contends would be his eventual extradition to the U.S. He hasn't explained why he thinks Sweden would be more likely to extradite him to the U.S. than the U.K. would. Sweden denies that its probe has any link to the U.S.

This isn't the first time Ecuador President Rafael Correa has riled a Western power. In 2009, he canceled the lease on a U.S. military base in the country, saying he wouldn't allow it unless the U.S. let Ecuador establish a base on U.S. soil.

Mr. Correa has also built a loose alliance with Mr. Assange. A self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary, Mr. Correa expelled the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador after documents published by WikiLeaks showed her alleging that widespread police corruption in Ecuador may have occurred with Mr. Correa's knowledge. Shortly before he sought asylum, Mr. Assange interviewed Mr. Correa and exchanged friendly banter with him on a talk show Mr. Assange hosts.

In a statement, Mr. Assange called Ecuador's decision "courageous." "I am grateful to the Ecuadorean people, President Rafael Correa and his government," he said. "It was not Britain or my home country, Australia, that stood up to protect me from persecution, but a courageous, independent Latin American nation," he said.

In his news conference, Mr. Hague denied that Sweden's extradition request was tied to any U.S. plan to pursue Mr. Assange. "We have no arrangement with the United States," Mr. Hague said. "This is the United Kingdom fulfilling its obligations under the extradition act to Sweden."

Assange backers rejoice outside Ecuador's embassy in London Thursday after the country granted him asylum.

U.S. authorities have probed whether Mr. Assange or others working for WikiLeaks did anything to induce an accused leaker of the government documents, Pfc. Bradley Manning, people familiar with the matter have said. The U.S. trial of Pfc. Manning, who is accused of embezzlement, fraud and espionage among other charges, is set to start in the next several months.

But U.S. officials have said it would be difficult to prosecute Mr. Assange, and as of now there is little chance a case could be brought in U.S. courts. During the initial Justice Department investigation, little evidence emerged that Mr. Assange induced Pfc. Manning to leak the documents, U.S. officials have said.

Mr. Patino, the foreign minister, lashed out at the U.K. for what he said were threats in meetings with Ecuadorian officials to storm the embassy and arrest Mr. Assange. He was referring to assertions by U.K. officials in those meetings that a 1987 law allows London to revoke diplomatic immunity for an embassy premises if it isn't being used for proper diplomatic functions. Mr. Patino called this a "clear attack" on Ecuador and said such a move would violate the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.Mr. Hague denied that the U.K. threatened to storm the embassy. But he said he didn't consider "the harboring of alleged criminals" or "frustrating the due legal process in a country" proper diplomatic functions. In a written statement, Britain's Foreign Office said the 1987 act, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act, "would allow us to take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current premises of the embassy."

A Foreign Office spokesman said he wasn't aware of a time that the U.K. had ever used the law for this purpose. Some British legal experts questioned whether the law could be put to such use.

Sweden's foreign ministry called Ecuador's decision "unacceptable" and said it planned to summon Ecuador's ambassador to Stockholm for a meeting.

About 20 police officers were stationed outside the Ecuadorian embassy by lunchtime Thursday, along with roughly 25 supporters of Mr. Assange. His supporters—some carrying Ecuadorian flags, others wearing the trademark masks of the Anonymous hackers group—chanted "Hands Off Ecuador! Hands Off Julian Assange!" and played music from Rage Against the Machine and Twisted Sister.

A few supporters scuffled with police. By noon the supporters were outnumbered by about 100 journalists and television cameras waiting for Ecuador's decision.

Outside the embassy Thursday, John Hamblett, a 55-year-old Londoner who manages a café for the Catholic Worker movement, which campaigns against war, poverty and social injustice, said protesters "think it's a crime to make people who try to speak for truth and justice into criminals." He said he didn't know whether Mr. Assange is guilty of the allegations leveled against him in Sweden. "I don't necessarily think there's any truth to them, but I think he should answer them anyway to clear the decks," Mr. Hamblett said.

Saul Yanchaliquin Duran, a 46-year-old Ecuadorian who lives in London and works as a waiter at the House of Lords, held up Ecuador's flag and chanted in favor of Mr. Assange in both English and Spanish. "Until the proof comes, nobody is guilty," Mr. Yanchaliquin Duran said.