Ecuadorian authorities have accused Britain of threatening to enter Ecuador's embassy in London to arrest Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the BBC reported.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino revealed that a decision on Assange’s political asylum bid has been made and will be made public later on Thursday.
At a Quito press conference on Wednesday, Patino said his country "received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they might storm our embassy in London if we don't hand over Julian Assange."
"Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication," he said as quoted by the BBC.
Assange, 41, has been hiding at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June to avoid his extradition to Sweden, where he faces a case in a rape trial that he calls politically motivated.
Assange’s whistleblowing site WikiLeaks made an enemy of the U.S. government in 2010, when it leaked hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic cables. The U.S. authorities have not ruled out requesting his extradition from Sweden.
He is being held on the charges of aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, if convicted.
