France declines Julian Assange’s plea for asylum

Paris

The French government, reacting to a letter from Julian Assange, said today it would not give the WikiLeaks founder asylum, only for his lawyers to claim he had never sought it in the first place.

"France cannot act on his request," President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement, responding to a letter from Assange that was widely interpreted as asking for asylum.

"The situation of Mr Assange does not present an immediate danger. Furthermore, he is subject to a European arrest warrant," Hollande's office said.

In Assange's letter, published earlier Friday in Le Monde newspaper, he described himself as a "journalist pursued and threatened with death by the United States' authorities as a result of my professional activities".

"In welcoming me, France would be accomplishing a humanitarian gesture," wrote the Australian activist, who turned 44 on Friday.

"Only France finds itself in a position to offer me the necessary protection against... the political persecutions I face."

However, his legal team later denied that Assange had applied for asylum, saying he was only responding to a recent invitation by a group of French civil rights activists, backed by Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, to visit the country.

"Julian Assange has not made any request for asylum in France," said Baltasar Garzon, head of his defence team, in a statement published on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed.