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
Extradition Act 2003 Extradition Act 2003 The Extradition Act 2003 (c.41) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates extradition requests by and to the United Kingdom. The Act came into force on 1 January 2004. It transposed the European Arrest Warrant framework decision into British law and implemented the UK side of the controversial UK—US extradition treaty of 2003 before the treaty came into force in April 2007 after being ratified by the US Senate in 2006. The Act is divided into five parts. The procedure used by the courts is set down in the Criminal Procedure Rules