14 DAY TRIAL // Julian Assange, of Wikileaks notoriety, continues to be a controversial person, even as his fame and influence has faded somewhat. The leading figure of the whistleblowing site has an army of supporters, a small but dedicated one, and has been quick to criticize the governments of the world.
But much of the criticism around him isn't about some Earth-shattering reveal made possible by Wikileaks, it's his extradition process in the UK. Sweden, where he lived for a while, would like to have Assange extradited from the UK to face charges.
After a lengthy process, UK courts found that there's enough evidence and reason to have him sent to Sweden.
In a last desperate attempt at hanging on to his freedom, Assange went to the Ecuador embassy seeking asylum.
Which brings us to today and the news that his plea has been granted and that Ecuador will grant political asylum to Assange. A great victory for Julian, though meaningless if he's unable to actually get out of the UK.
Assange has been in the embassy for close to two months now and is probably going to stay there for a while. That's because the UK has no intention of letting him leave the embassy and the country.
Authorities have made that clear. Ecuador officials, on the other hand, also made it clear that they will not be bullied by the UK and that Ecuador is "not a British colony."
All of this would be important, noble even, if the matter at heart had anything to do with freedom of information and so on. But it does not, Assange is not wanted for some political charges, he's wanted for sexual offenses.
Of course, Assange and his allies say, perhaps rightfully so, that if he were to be extradited to Sweden, he has no guarantee that he won't be extradited to the US to face "treason" charges or whatever the US Department of Justice can come up with. And he's right too, it's not above the US to do this, it's doing it to Kim Dotcom over copyright infringement charges.
Assange has certainly annoyed quite a few people at Pentagon and in the US government, people who are not used to being annoyed and not being able to do something about it.
But the fact remains that he's not dodging political charges so it still looks like he's just trying to keep out of jail and nothing more. A martyr Assange would do the Wikileaks cause a lot more good than an Assange being framed as a pervert, rightfully or not.