Nation/World

London police withdraw from embassy but still aim to detain Assange

LONDON -- British police ended their 24-hour guard outside Ecuador's embassy in London on Monday but said they will still use "overt and covert tactics" in a bid to detain WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Metropolitan Police Service said its decision reflects the need to "balance the interests of justice in this case with the ongoing risks to the safety of Londoners and all those we protect."

"Like all public services, MPS resources are finite," it said. "With so many different criminal, and other, threats to the city it protects, the current deployment of officers is no longer believed proportionate."

It said officers will "make every effort to arrest him" if Assange leaves the embassy, where he took refuge in June 2012 after he lost a legal battle against extradition to Sweden.

"Whilst no tactics guarantee success in the event of Julian Assange leaving the embassy, the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him," the police said.

Swedish prosecutors want to question the 44-year-old Australian relation to an alleged rape in 2010, a charge he denies.

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