WikiLeaks’ Assange hopes to exit London embassy if UK lets …

By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:27am EDT

1 of 5. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London August 18, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/John Stillwell/pool

LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent over two years in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid a sex crimes inquiry in Sweden, said on Monday he planned to leave the building "soon", but Britain signaled it would still arrest him if he tried.

Assange made the surprise assertion during a news conference alongside Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino. But his spokesman played down the chances of an imminent departure, saying the British government would first need to revise its position and let him leave without arrest, something it has repeatedly refused to do.

The 43-year-old Australian fled to the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition for questioning in Sweden over sex assault and rape allegations, which he denies.

He says he fears that if extradited to Sweden he would then be handed over to the United States, where he could be tried for one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.

Assange would be arrested if he exited the London embassy because he has breached his British bail terms.

"I am leaving the embassy soon ... but perhaps not for the reasons that Murdoch press and Sky news are saying at the moment," Assange told reporters at the embassy in central London.

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WikiLeaks' Assange hopes to exit London embassy if UK lets ...