German MP mulls solution to Assange case

LONDON - German lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen on Sunday visited Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and pledged to help find a diplomatic solution to end the dispute around the founder of the controversial WikiLeaks .

Dagdelen, a member of the German Bundestag who sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the lower house, spent the morning talking to Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London, and issued a statement outside the building at noon.

"We, as peace and freedom loving people in Germany and around the world are greatly indebted to Mr Assange. He helped to uncover the war crimes in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Dagdelen said.

"We agreed that the key is the attitude of the British and the Swedish government," she said, adding that the Swedish Prosecution Authority has displayed a very contradictory attitude, and has denied Assange the opportunity to make full use of his right to a defence.

Dagdelen said she was worried that extraditing Assange to Sweden would trigger a chain of events that would lead eventually to his extradition to the United States, where he could face long-term imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The MP said she was planning to meet with British and Swedish diplomats in Berlin in order to discuss a solution to the crisis.

Dagdelen also called on her "colleagues" from other countries to "come over to London and seek a humanitarian solution to this crisis."

"We as parliamentarians should demand that our governments act. Unfortunately, the German government has taken no action to find a solution," she said.

Dagdelen, who is also the spokeswoman on international relations for the Left Party parliamentary group, told Xinhua that she had talked with Assange about his current situation, and what he was expecting from parliamentarians from Germany and other countries can do on his case.

Dagdelen said they also discussed about the international law, and the threat of British government going to the Ecuadorian embassy to catch Assuage.

The MP said Assange was in good spirits despite facing a difficult situation and was very "pleased" about her visit.

Assange has been taking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June to avoid his extradition to Sweden, and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. However, Britain refused to recognize the asylum and denied Assange safe passage out of the country.

The 41-year-old Australian claimed that Sweden intends to hand him over to the United States, where he may face espionage charges for leaking thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and, if convicted, could be given the death penalty.

Britain was also accused by Ecuador of threatening to storm its embassy to arrest Assange. The Organization of American States last Friday threw its weight behind Ecuador by affirming the inviolability of its diplomatic premises.