Julian Assange row: Embassy entry 'would be suicide for UK'

[dipsydoodle]

The UK would be committing diplomatic suicide if it tried to enter his country's embassy in London, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said.

The president said such a move would open up the UK to having its diplomatic missions around the world entered.

Mr Correa was speaking to state television about the continuing dispute over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19328335

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Which, let's be honest, isn't going to happen

that was pretty obviously a rather hamfisted attempt to get the Ecuadoreans to expel him from their embassy rather than granting asylum that's backfired pretty spectacularly; there's no way police are going to enter the embassy without a storm of diplomatic protest and probable repercussions for British diplomats in various parts of the world. Whatever one happens to think of the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, it very probably does not extend to this case; the intended purpose was to strip diplomatic status from premises being used to harbour terrorists (for instance, it would have allowed entry into the Libyan People's Bureau in 1984 to apprehend the murderer of Yvonne Fletcher, had it been law at the time).But there's no reason to think its scope would extend to being used in this instance.