Assange stakeout costs Londoners $9 mn

Guarding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Julian

 Assange has sought political asylum, has cost the

 Metropolitan Police £5.3 million ($9 million), officers

 have had the place staked out around the clock since

 June 2012.

A freedom of information request by the British media

 to London’s Metropolitan Police estimates the cost of 

policing the Ecuadorian embassy between June 2012 and

 December 2013 at £5.3 million, including £4.4 million

 ($7.3 million) going on police pay, while £900,000

 ($1.5 million) was spent paying officers overtime.

The cost to the London taxpayer is just under £10,000

 ($17,000) a day. At any time of the day or night, there 

are three officers stationed outside the embassy, 

ready to arrest Assange if he tries to make a run for

 it – or pops out for a pint of milk.

The 42-year old WikiLeaks founder is wanted fo

r questioning in Sweden for allegedly sexually 

assaulting two women in Stockholm in 2010.

Assange denies the charges but will not travel to 

Sweden to be questioned because he says the charges 

are politically motivated for his work with WikiLeaks 

and he will be extradited to the US. WikiLeaks enraged 

Washington by publishing thousands of leaked 

diplomatic cables in 2010.

Baroness Jenny Jones, deputy chair of the Police and

 Crime Committee at the London Assembly, has said 

the situation should not be allowed to go on indefinitely, 

saying the huge costs it should be borne by the 

national government, not by Londoners.

But Assange could potentially stay in his Knightsbridge

 bolt hole until 2022, when the statute of limitations on

 his extradition expires.

“It is complete madness when we are struggling to keep 

police officers on the beat. The cost is falling on the London

 taxpayers as a net police cost. He could stay there 

for years,” Jones said, as quoted by the London Evening

 Standard.

Earlier this month, Swedish MPs called for prosecutors to travel 

to London to interview Assange at the embassy, and that

 they should accept that Assange won’t be leaving under

 his own will.

http://rt.com/news/154960-assange-police-ecuador-embassy/