WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called upon President Barack Obama to end the U.S. government's pursuit of him, his whistle-blowing website, and its sources.
Speaking on Wednesday via satellite from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has taken asylum for the last three months, Assange said: "It is time for the United States to cease its persecution of WikiLeaks, to cease its persecution of our people and to cease its persecution of our alleged sources.
"It is time for President Obama to do the right thing and join the forces of change -- not in fine words, but in fine deeds," Assange told a packed conference room at the United Nations, where world leaders were attending the annual General Assembly meeting. He made the impassioned appeal at an event sponsored by the Ecuadorean Mission at the U.N., but it did not have the official support of the world body.
Reports say that Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino is set to meet with his British counterpart William Hague on Thursday, hoping for a "positive dialogue" in order to enable Assange to leave the Embassy without facing the possibility of arrest, and "protect his life and human rights."
Assange's appeal comes a month after Washington accused him of making "wild assertions" about the United States in an attempt to divert public attention from justice he faces in Sweden.
Assange, who stunned the world by publishing a series of classified U.S. military documents and diplomatic cables, took asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on June 19.
In his first public appearance since then, Assange on August 19 thanked his supporters from a balcony of the Embassy building in the British capital. He read out a statement calling on the United States to end its "witch-hunt" against WikiLeaks and to release Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who has been charged with aiding the enemy by passing secret files to WikiLeaks. Manning has been under detention for the last two and a half years awaiting trial.
Responding to a Swedish request, Assange was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in December, 2010 on a European arrest warrant on alleged sex crimes. He had been under house arrest until he sought asylum in Ecuadorean Embassy in a dramatic move.
He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in Stockholm in August 2010. Assange denies allegations of rape and sexual assault, made by two Swedish women who had served WikiLeaks as volunteers, saying that the sex was consensual.
Assange fears he will be extradited to the United States once Britain hands over him to Sweden.
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