Locked inside a small apartment in central London, the only reason Julian Assange has avoided arrest is that his dimly lit ground-floor bedroom also happens to be de facto Ecuadorian soil.
Marking almost exactly two years after the WikiLeaks founder gave a similar soundbite-laden speech on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in Britain's capital, he yesterday opted for a more modest affair, only to offer a similar string of pointless remarks, which were all but retracted after the fact.
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In case you missed it, Assange said he would leave the embassy "soon," after being holed up in the small embassy for more than two years.
Following the appearance on Monday morning, however, his spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said although Assange was ready to leave the embassy, it would only be when he is offered passage free from the threat of arrest.
Assange's message was anything but clear -- leaving more questions than answers. One being whether the political and legal situation has shifted since he first entered the embassy.
It hasn't. Very little has changed in the diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and the UK.
Assange, who founded the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, rose to prominence in 2010 after the leak of classified US military documents on the Afghan and Iraq wars. He remains concerned that should he step outside of the protection of Ecuador's London embassy, he will first be extradited to Sweden -- where he faces accusations of sexual assault dating back to 2010 -- but then will be forced to travel to the US. An onwards extradition, he claims, could see him tried in a US court for espionage crimes for his involvement in the classified cache release.
The Australian-born hacker turned media figure and document leaker was arrested in Britain, but received bail as he awaited court decisions in efforts to rollback the extradition process.
Once the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK, ruled against him, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy to seek political asylum.
Though extradition laws in the UK have changed in the meanwhile, Assange's case is over. Although the 43-year-old is wanted by Swedish authorities, and allegedly by the US government, his first and foremost crime on UK soil is for breaking his bail by absconding to the embassy in the first place.
I can confirm that I am leaving the embassy soon, but perhaps not for the reasons that the Murdoch press and Sky News are saying at the moment.Julian Assange
Since then, Assange's media organization has been key in a number of leaks, including the Global Intelligence Files, which detailed private industry's involvement in massive state surveillance.
More than two years on, Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patino yesterday told the Guardian that the UK government does not care to find a diplomatic solution to the problem. Patino also claimed Assange's human rights have been violated by refusing to allow him to leave the embassy due to the threat of arrest, denying him basic human rights and dignity.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office called on the Ecuadorean government to "bring this difficult and costly situation to an end."
"We remain as committed as ever to reaching a diplomatic solution to this situation," the spokesperson said, according to the BBC.
Nobody is denying that Assange broke UK law by skipping out on his bail requirements. The allegations in Sweden are unavoidable, but any charges brought on Assange in the US are questionable at best.
Ecuador and the UK remain at odds over who should budge first.
The Ecuadorian embassy is made up of a series of converted apartments. Ecuador occupies only the ground floor of the building, however, and British police remain in the hallways and elevators where Ecuador's reach does not extend. If he leaves the apartment, he can be immediately arrested.
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