Mr. Assange (Photo: Wikipedia)

It appears that seeking political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has been a great decision for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been at the embassy, awaiting the processing of his asylum application, for the last three weeks. Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa--a left-wing populist--and his cabinet are quite sympathetic to Mr. Assange's plight, having offered him residency in Ecuador as far back as 2010.

But perhaps they're... too sympathetic?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

Ecuador’s foreign minister has said  sexual assault allegations in Sweden against Julian Assange are laughable, but no ruling has been made on the WikiLeaks founder’s asylum application.

‘‘Personally, (I think) this is hilarious,’’ Ecuadoran chief diplomat Ricardo Patino told reporters today, explaining that Assange ‘‘is charged because his condom broke’’.

Hahaha guys sexual assault accusations are so funny. Wait...

We understand the paternal instinct to protect Mr. Assange from potential extradition to the U.S. on espionage charges, but publicly laughing at sexual assault allegations--as a chief diplomat--is probably not the best way to engender sympathy from skeptics.

Meanwhile, we find it quite appropriate that the Sydney Morning Herald's URL is smh.com. SMH, indeed.