London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told CNN that round-the-clock security to watch Assange, who has avoided extradition since June 2012 by staying at the embassy, is “a drain.”
Swedish officials want Assange extradited for questioning on allegations he sexually molested two women. But Assange, the founder and public face of Wikileaks, believes Sweden would eventually extradite him to the United States where a federal grand jury has spent five years looking into whether Assange should be tried for espionage.
That leaves Assange in limbo while he continues work from inside the embassy and British taxpayers holding the bill.
Hogan-Howe was quoted by LBC Radio saying: “We are reviewing the way forward there, and there’s no doubt that it’s a drain. We’re gonna have to look to see what other opportunities we have, how we can do that differently in the future, because it’s sucking our resources in.”
Assange, meanwhile, said in an earlier interview with LBC that he is tired of intelligence officials questioning people who visit him at the embassy.
“The greatest concern for me is the intelligence gathering that the British police are doing on my visitors to the embassy, aggressively demanding their names and identity details,” Assange said.