Argentina criticises Britain’s ‘arrogance’ in Assange case
August 29th, 2012 - 1:14 pm ICT by IANSBuenos Aires, Aug 29 (IANS) Argentina’s Ambassador to Britain Alicia Castro has criticized the British government’s “arrogance” in dealing with the Julian Assange case.
Castro told a radio station that the diplomatic conflict between Britain and Ecuador, as a result of the latter’s decision to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum, “resembles its declarations regarding the Malvinas question, with which Britain also disregards international law”.
Both Britain and Argentina claimed ownership of the Malvinas islands - called Falklands islands by Britain - and Britain has repeatedly ignored UN resolutions to address the issue, reported Xinhua.
Regarding Assange, Britain initially threatened to storm Ecuador’s embassy in London, where the freedom-of-information activist has been seeking refuge since June 19, but retracted the threat last Saturday after countries throughout Latin America condemned the warning.
“To Argentinians, the threat shows the arrogance of British diplomacy. We are not surprised by it,” said Castro.
Britain says it must hand over Assange to Sweden for questioning in two sexual misconduct cases brought against him, but Assange fears Swedish authorities will extradite him to the US, where he could be prosecuted and possibly sentenced to death for having revealed US military secret documents through his website.
- South America backs Ecuador's asylum offer to Assange - Aug 20, 2012
- Assange gets asylum in Ecuador (Lead, Changing dateline) - Aug 16, 2012
- Britain threatening to take Assange by force: Ecuador - Aug 16, 2012
- Raiding embassy for Assange will be 'suicidal', Ecuador tells UK - Aug 21, 2012
- Britain doesn't know who it is dealing with: Ecuador - Aug 19, 2012
- Julian Assange trying to deflect attention: US - Aug 21, 2012
- WikiLeaks releases 2.4 mn e-mails on Syria - Jul 05, 2012
- Assange granted asylum for fear of US: Ecuador envoy - Aug 17, 2012
- Assange served extradition notice - Jun 29, 2012
- Britain refuses Assange safe passage to Ecuador - Aug 17, 2012
- End witch-hunt against WikiLeaks: Assange urges US - Aug 19, 2012
- Ecuador refuses to extradite Belarus cop - Aug 30, 2012
- Britain to deploy warship in South Atlantic - Feb 01, 2012
- Ecuador yet to decide on Wikileaks founder's asylum - Aug 15, 2012
- UN chief seeks to ease Falkland tensions - Feb 11, 2012
Tags: activist, alicia castro, arrogance, british government, declarations, diplomacy, diplomatic conflict, embassy in london, falklands islands, freedom of information, julian assange, last saturday, latin america, malvinas islands, political asylum, radio station, secret documents, sexual misconduct cases, swedish authorities, xinhua