Saturday 26 April 2014

Assange stakeout costs Londoners $9 mn

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/

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home