Legal team to be tasked with breaking deadlock over Assange

A GROUP of legal experts is to be set up by the UK and Ecuadorian governments to try to break the deadlock over the ­future of WikiLeaks founder Julian ­Assange.

Despite the move being agreed after a meeting between Foreign Secretary William Hague and his Ecuadorian counterpart Ricardo Patino, little progress was made in trying to resolve the diplomatic stand-off.

Assange has been inside Ecuador’s London embassy for almost a year, fearing he will be extradited to the United States if he travels to Sweden to ­answer allegations of sexual assault against two women.

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Mr Patino said Assange was prepared to stay inside the embassy for five years, believing it was preferable to facing the American legal system. Mr Patino said the Ecuadorian government was prepared to continue to allow Assange to remain inside the embassy, following the decision last year to grant him political asylum.

He made it clear Assange would not be smuggled out of the embassy in the boot of a car, saying he should be allowed to leave and go to Ecuador.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the two ministers agreed to keep channels of communication open, but made no ­breakthrough.

He said: “Ministers agreed that officials should establish a working group to find a diplomatic solution to the issue, but no substantive progress was made.”

“The Foreign Secretary was clear that any resolution would need to be within the laws of the United Kingdom.”