Julian Assange is concerned not about any proceedings in Sweden as such, but believe that his deportation to Sweden could lead to politically motivated deportation to the United States, where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks. On 16 August 2012, Foreign Minister Patiño announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians. In its formal statement, Ecuador reasoned that "as a consequence of [Assange's] determined defense to freedom of expression and
UK–US extradition treaty of 2003 end of December 2011, 33 known UK citizens (including 6 with dual nationality) were extradited from the UK to the US. The U.S. embassy in London reports that, as of April 2013, 77 individuals have been extradited from the UK to the US. The U.S. has argued that this is not disproportionate, due to the US population being about five times larger than the UK population. UK–US extradition treaty of 2003 Controversy surrounds the UK–US extradition treaty of 2003, which was implemented by the UK in the Extradition Act 2003 and came into force in April 2007 following its ratification