Assange seeks asylum with Ecuador Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London on Tuesday and sought political asylum, a British news agency reported. According to Britain's Press Association, Mr Assange entered the Ecuadorean embassy in London's Knightsbridge district and asked for asylum under the terms of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. Mr Assange, 40, made his move following a long-running legal bid to halt his extradition to Sweden, where he faces sex crime allegations. The UK Supreme Court, Britain's highest legal authority, decided on May 30 that his extradition was lawful and could go ahead. However, Mr Assange was given time to consider the judgment. The Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping a woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010 while on a visit to give a lecture. Mr Assange, whose WikiLeaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments and international businesses, says the sex was consensual and that the allegations against him are politically motivated. Many of WikiLeaks" disclosures have involved secret US documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no immediate response from Britain's Foreign Office to news of Mr Assange's apparent asylum bid. According to the Press Association, a man speaking from the embassy said over the telephone that Mr Assange had arrived at the embassy on Tuesday and was requesting political asylum. Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino also confirmed that Mr Assange had taken refuge at its embassy and that his country's government was weighing up the request. A message was posted on the Wikileaks Twitter account, saying: "Julian Assange has requested political asylum and is under the protection of the Ecuadorian embassy in London." A second read: "We will have more details on the Ecuadorian situation soon." Mr Assange has a curious relationship with Ecuador, occasionally finding common cause with President Rafael Correa, who is aligned with leftist governments in the region and has been criticised for his robust attitude to journalists in his own country. In late 2010, Ecuador offered the WikiLeaks founder the chance of working and seeking residency in the Andean country. But Mr Correa subsequently backtracked. Then, late last year, publication of a 2009 WikiLeaks cable revealed that Heather Hodges, then the US ambassador to Ecuador, claimed Mr Correa once appointed a police chief despite knowing he was corrupt. Ecuador subsequently expelled the ambassador. Although WikiLeaks has often sought to hold powerful officials to account, Mr Correa has a strained relationship with his own national press, recently winning libel suits against journalists for critical reporting of his administration. In an interview with Mr Assange broadcast on "Russia Today" this May, Mr Correa blasted the US and accused Ecuador's press of subverting the efforts of "governments that try to do something for the great majority." An Ecuadorean journalist and newspaper proprietor recently sought asylum in the US.