William Hague to the Swedish authorities who had requested his extradition; thus Swedish prosecutors, unwilling to break diplomatic protocol, have deferred from interrogating Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador, London. Hague confirmed the British Government's position – that it is lawfully obliged to extradite Julian Assange. "We're disappointed by the statement by Ecuador's Foreign Minister today that Ecuador has offered political asylum to Julian Assange. Under our Laws, with Mr. Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We must carry out that obligation and of course we fully intend
Julian Assange Assange made the decision to seek asylum because he felt abandoned by the Australian government. The Australian Attorney-General at the time Nicola Roxon had written a letter to Assange’s legal representative Jennifer Robinson in which she wrote that Australia would not seek to involve itself in any international exchanges about Assange’s future. She also wrote that "should Mr Assange be convicted of any offence in the United States and a sentence of imprisonment imposed, he may apply for an international prisoner transfer to Australia". Assange’s lawyers described the letter as a "declaration of abandonment". Assange and his supporters state he