Ecuadorian president said Quito was mulling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request for political asylum in the country.

Ecuadorian president said Quito was mulling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's request for political asylum in the country.

President Rafael Correa said Ecuador was weighing whether Assange's request was motivated by fears of a death sentence or persecution for ideological reasons.
Assange, 40-year-old Australian, turned up Tuesday at Ecuador's embassy in London, seeking asylum after Britain's Supreme Court turned down a last ditch appeal of his extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.

Assange maintains that the allegations are politically motivated and that Sweden will deport him to the United States to be put on trial for WikiLeaks's disclosure of a huge trove of US classified documents.

"Ecuador is a country which defends the right to life. We have to see whether there is a threat to Julian Assange's life," Correa told AFP as he was attending the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development.
"Ecuador is a country which defends due process. We have to assess whether he was accorded due process. Ecuador is a country which rejects persecution on ideological grounds," he added.

"He (Assange) presented his reasons. We are going to verify them...We will take the time necessary, with absolute seriousness and absolute responsibilit, Correa said further.

Correa said Assange's asylum request was the "best answer" to those who say there is no freedom of expression in Ecuador.
Ecuador's leftist government had offered Assange residency in 2010 in sympathy over WikiLeaks's disclosure of the US documents.