Wednesday, 20 June 2012

The bizarre story of Assange....

So now Assange is under the protection of article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations within the verge of the Ecudorian Embassy in London:


Article 22
1.The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
2.The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises
of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the
mission or impairment of its dignity.
3.The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of
transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.



He reminds me of Baron Ripperda, a Roman Catholic turned Dutch Calvinist who went to be Dutch Ambassador to Spain in 1715 where he converted back to the Church of Rome and went to Vienna in 1725 as Ambassador of the Spanish Crown where he exceeded his authority such that after the shortest possible spell as Spanish Prime Minister he came under threat of arrest in Madrid and in return for spilling the beans about his Government's plans for Gibraltar he obtained asylum in the British embassy from where he was forcibly removed under protest from the British Ambassador (the case is cited as the genesis of Article 22) and then escaped to Morocco where he converted to Islam and became a General to the Sultan.  He then seems to have got back to Western Europe in time to lead a bid for Corsican independence after being promised its Crown - that ended in his imprisonment.  Or he may just have died in Morocco in 1737 -His son became Governor of Texas.

A copy of the Ouseley J judgement on Assange's bail conditions can be found here 

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