Wikileaks spy scandal - why Ecuador?

Question

Julian Assange has refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and now it appears that Edward Snowden has met up with the Ecuadorian Embassador in Moscow.

I was just wandering - why choose Ecuador in particular? I know multiple countries have extradition agreements with the USA, so does Ecuador not have such an agreement?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

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The US and Ecuador have an old extradition treaty that covers a limited number of crimes (murder, rape, arson, burglary, etc); but there's no extradition for treason, espionage, etc.

Assange would be covered by the extradition treaty between the UK and Ecuador, which is almost as old and probably equally limited.

Source(s): http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/en/traites/en_trai...

Answer 2

When Assange interviewed the Ecuadorean president on his TV show, they seemed to hit it off as both being persecuted. Ecuador promised him asylum. Thats why. Maybe he should have gone to Hong Kong like Snowden. Maybe Assange should have remained under house arrest at the country house in England. I hope he can find a way to get out of there in secret. Hong Kong does have an extradition agreement with the U.S. but in the case of Snowden they are claiming the U.S. request was not in compliance with their law.