LONDON: British police on Monday said they will no longer stand guard outside London’s Ecuadorean embassy where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange took refuge in 2012, but will strengthen a “covert plan” to prevent his departure.
Britain’s Foreign Office later confirmed that it had summoned the Ecuadorean ambassador to “register once again our deep frustration at the protracted delay” in extraditing Assange to Sweden to face questions over a rape allegation.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said Monday that it had “today withdrawn the physical presence of officers from outside the embassy.
“The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him.
“Whilst no tactics guarantee success in the event of Julian Assange leaving the embassy, the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him,” police said in a statement.
Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange about a rape claim, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations that expires in 2020.
