Assange guard costs Scotland Yard £10mln

PanARMENIAN.Net - Scotland Yard has spent about £10mln providing a 24-hour guard at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claimed asylum there, figures show, according to BBC News.

Between June 2012 and October 2014, direct policing costs were £7.3mln, with £1.8mln spent on overtime, police said.

Assange, who denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden, faces arrest if he leaves the embassy.

A Wikileaks spokesman said the policing costs were "embarrassing".

Scotland Yard confirmed the cost of the operation to UK taxpayers in the first 28 months, until Oct 31 last year, had reached £9mln. The cost of a further three months policing is now expected to have taken the total bill to about £10mln.

"It is embarrassing to see the UK government spending more on surveillance and detaining an uncharged political refugee than on its investigation into the Iraq war, which killed hundreds of thousands," WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said.

Assange attacked Sweden, saying the country had adopted the "shameful legal practice" of "indefinite detention without charge".

In August last year, Assange indicated he would "soon" leave the embassy, where he has now been for more than 950 days, but he remains inside.

Swedish authorities want to question Assange over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture in 2010.

A Swedish appeal court upheld an arrest warrant against Assange in November last year.

UK courts have repeatedly ruled that he should be extradited to Sweden to face questioning. But Assange fears he could be extradited to the U.S. to face charges over the release of top-secret documents by Wikileaks.

He entered the embassy after the UK's Supreme Court dismissed his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition. He was then granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012

He has been warned he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy, prompting the 24-hour guard by Metropolitan Police officers.