German left-wing MP to visit Assange

Berlin: A German far-left MP said she would on Sunday visit WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in London where he has been holed up since June.

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the party Die Linke who sits on the foreign affairs committee in the lower house, said Thursday she hoped to help find a solution to the diplomatic standoff around Assange’s asylum request.

She said she would “discuss the current situation with Assange and, as a parliamentarian, attempt to find common ways out of the diplomatic crisis”.

Britain has said Assange will be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy and extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes, under the terms of a European arrest warrant.

WikiLeaks angered Washington by releasing tens of thousands of classified files about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as US diplomatic cables which gave often unflattering views of world leaders.

Assange says he fears being eventually extradited to the US.

On Wednesday, Ecuador’s vice-president and Britain’s foreign minister pledged to forge a diplomatic solution to the standoff after what were described as “amicable” talks at the Foreign Office in London.

Ecuador, which has granted Assange diplomatic asylum, was angered by what it saw as Britain’s threat to enter the embassy and arrest Assange.

London insisted it never threatened to enter the building and merely made Ecuador aware of the existence of a law which would allow it to do so.

Dagdelen said her a statement: “As a member of the foreign affairs committee, I feel especially duty-bound to do everything I can to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, in accordance with human rights, and protect a person from torture, unjustified life imprisonment or even death.”