Speaking about the legal tussle faced by the WikiLeaks founder Assange, who faces extradition to Sweden, chief diplomat Ricardo Patino said, “Personally, this is hilarious,” adding he “is charged because his condom broke”.
Assange is currently under protection at the Ecuadoran embassy in London as officials mull over the allegations of sexual misconduct against him, and whether they should grant him political asylum in the Latin American country.
An extradition to Sweden would raise the likelihood of Assange also standing trial in the United States over hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks.
If Patino’s protestations are anything to go by, including saying one of Assange’s alleged victims only filed a complaint because she “realised that on certain nights, the condom broke,” then certainly Ecuadoran officials are sympathetic.
Assange insists he only had consensual relations with the women.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks is preparing to publish two million emails from Syrian politicians to Western companies dating back to 2006.
