In a show of force, British police started to arrive outside the Embassy at around midnight. The logical explanation is that their purpose would be to arrest Assange if Ecuador denies his asylum application, and asks him to leave the embassy. A strong force of police would be necessary to counter any possible intervention by Assange supporters.
However, there are reports that the UK has threatened to invoke the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 and enter the embassy by force. Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, yesterday released details of a diplomatic note he had received from a British diplomat in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. It said, “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the embassy.”
The Guardian reports that Patiño is deeply shocked by this apparent threat. "If the measures announced in the British official communication materialise they will be interpreted by Ecuador as a hostile and intolerable act and also as an attack on our sovereignty, which would require us to respond with greater diplomatic force. Such actions would be a blatant disregard of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations and of the rules of international law of the past four centuries.”
A Foreign Office official later told the Associated Press “via email that the letter ‘was not a threat’ and was intended to clarify ‘all aspects of British law that Ecuador should be aware of’,” reports ABC News.
Ecuador is in a difficult position. It is generally considered to be sympathetic towards Assange. But if it grants asylum, Assange will effectively become a prisoner in the London embassy, situated on the first floor of a building and without an embassy compound. It is physically impossible to transfer from the embassy to an embassy vehicle without setting foot on British ‘territory’ – at which point he would be arrested.
This story will be updated with any new developments as the day progresses.
UPDATE: 13:30 BST – Julian Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador.