Amal Clooney, a former member of the legal team of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, advised the whistleblower while she was his lawyer that he try to secure a position as an Ecuadorian minister as a means to get diplomatic immunity, leave the United Kingdom legally and thereby escape prosecution, UK media reported on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2019) Amal Clooney, a former member of the legal team of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, advised the whistleblower while she was his lawyer that he try to secure a position as an Ecuadorian minister as a means to get diplomatic immunity, leave the United Kingdom legally and thereby escape prosecution, UK media reported on Thursday.Assange had been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge after jumping bail, for seven years. He was dragged out of the embassy by Metropolitan Police officers in April and is now serving time in a UK prison.
Clooney, a human rights lawyer and the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, explained to Assange that he was "uniquely qualified" for the position of Ecuadorian technology minister, the Daily Mail newspaper, which saw the 29-page document drawn up by Clooney in 2013, revealed.
"It may be legally possible for JA [Assange] to be appointed to an Ecuadorian ministerial or diplomatic post. This could give him immunity from arrest and right of passage out of the UK," Clooney reportedly wrote.
She suggested that another way of escaping London's hands would be to marry an Ecuadorian and through that acquire an Ecuadorian passport.
The revelations came on the heels of the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London on Wednesday, where Clooney gave a speech as UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt's recently appointed new press freedom envoy. The conference was accompanied by rallies in support of Assange.
The WikiLeaks founder sought refuge at the embassy of the Latin American nation after Sweden leveled rape charges against him in 2010. Assange has denied these allegations, and in 2017 Sweden dropped the case against him. In May, however, shortly after the arrest, Swedish prosecutors announced that they had reopened the rape investigation.
The whistleblower is facing extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on espionage charges and may be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
