--- title: U.K Protests Julian Assange's Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy description: The British Ambassador has made a formal protest to the Ecuadorian government over the country's harboring of the Wikileaks founder. canonical: https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/ author: Alissa Greenberg article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-14T09:26:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:30.253Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.K Formally Protests Assange's Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy og:description: Foreign Office minister called it a "growing stain" on Ecuador's reputation og:url: https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b4a8fedae30ebe5/69885f435f570f679fb1cec9/rtr4z0kw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4872 og:image:height: 2741 og:image:alt: A police officer stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.K Formally Protests Assange's Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy twitter:description: Foreign Office minister called it a "growing stain" on Ecuador's reputation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b4a8fedae30ebe5/69885f435f570f679fb1cec9/rtr4z0kw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.K Lodges Formal Protest Over Assange's Continued Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c6f0f0a0-b061-48e8-845e-95390a126c67&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden [Watch (HLS stream): Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2013-12-11. TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year._ by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Aug 14, 2015 9:26 AM UTC  A police officer stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London August 13, 2015. A police officer stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London August 13, 2015. Peter Nicholls—Reuters by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Aug 14, 2015 9:26 AM UTC The British Ambassador in Quito lodged a formal [protest](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33907874) to the Ecuadorian government Thursday over the country’s continued harboring of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Foreign Office officials confirm. Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, saying he was afraid his extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges would be followed by further extradition to the U.S. to stand trial for leaking classified and sensitive documents through his organization. He has been living at the embassy since then. “Ecuador must recognize that its decision to harbor Mr. Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice,” Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire told the BBC before the written complaint was delivered in Quito. The issue is both a moral and a financial one: U.K. officials estimate that the cost of policing the area around the London embassy is nearing $19 million. Swedish authorities were forced to [drop](http://time.com/3995610/sweden-wikileaks-julian-assange-rape-sexual-assault/) two allegations of sexual assault this week due to that country’s statute of limitations policy. Under Swedish law, an individual may not be charged until he or she has been questioned by authorities, an action that investigators say has been made impossible by Assange’s stay at the Embassy. He still faces a more serious allegation of rape, on which the statute of limitations will not run out until 2020. “I am an innocent man. I haven’t even been charged,” Assange told the BBC. “From the beginning I offered simple solutions. Come to the embassy to take my statement or promise not to send me to the United States. This Swedish official refused both. She even refused a written statement.” Sweden’s director of public prosecution told the BBC that authorities had submitted a request to interview Assange inside the embassy as he suggested but had not received permission. \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33907874)\] ## Transcript >> Edward Snowden made TIME's shortlist for 'Person of the Year' this year. In late spring and early summer I once known a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, who was working for the National Security Agency began contacting reporters around the world saying he wanted to give them information. He basically took, as one person told me, one of everything. From the deepest, darkest safe house within the NSA describing almost everything they are doing around the world to collect information both on regular citizens and on traditional surveillance targets. The effects of these disclosures have really been earth shaking both domestically and around the world. In the U. S. there's Congressional Reform efforts President Obama has come up saying he wants to pursue reforms, there's resolutions with the United Nations that could actually change the way the world talks about privacy as a human right. And then there are a number of diplomatic crisis that have started as a result of this. The sense of the allies of the United States very upset about the surveillance that's been disclosed. And finally there's a real fear among U. S. technology created that foreign customers will not trust them now both because there are working relationships between the NSA and these companies. But also because the Snowden disclosures revealed that the NSA was also hacking into these technology companies without their knowledge. Snowden was 29 years old when he leaked this information. He has since turned 30, he's living now in Moscow on a one year asylum grant from the Russian government. He is someone who has thought very deeply about what he did. He thought very strategically about the information he leaked, and he has a cogent argument which has been spreading. And, for that reason I think that the mark that Snowden will leave on the world is that he is the person who has really introduced in a popular sense the notion that this brave new world of internet communication which gives us so much wonderful things can have a dark side. >> This is about a trend in the relationship between the governing and the governed. >> And there is a requirement among democratic states to think about the issues that arise here and figure out what rules and regulations they want to put in play. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/"},"headline":"U.K Lodges Formal Protest Over Assange's Continued Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy","datePublished":"2015-08-14T09:26:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:30.253Z","description":"Hugo Swire of the Foreign Office called the issue a \"growing stain\" on Ecuador's reputation","url":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/","keywords":["Ecuador","Sexual Assault","politics","sweden","United Kingdom","Julian Assange","WikiLeaks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b4a8fedae30ebe5/69885f435f570f679fb1cec9/rtr4z0kw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alissa Greenberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b4a8fedae30ebe5/69885f435f570f679fb1cec9/rtr4z0kw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A police officer stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London","caption":"A police officer stands outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London","creditText":"Peter Nicholls—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ecuador/","name":"Ecuador"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/","name":"U.K Lodges Formal Protest Over Assange's Continued Stay in Ecuadorian Embassy"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden","description":"TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cxBatp7g/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3997683/uk-julian-assange-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```