Neither the UK nor Sweden would give him guarantees that he would not be extradited to the US. The UK stopped all attempts by Ecuador to leave the UK (he became

Neither the UK nor Sweden would give him guarantees that he would not be extradited to the US. The UK stopped all attempts by Ecuador to leave the UK (he became a Ecuadorian citizen and was appointed as a diplomat, but was refused diplomatic immunity by the UK). Assange stated many times that he wanted to go to Sweden, but only on the condition they wouldn't extradite him to the US. So, I think staying the embassy was the only option for him, given that the US clearly wanted to have Assange and had already tortured Chelsea Manning for simply being the source of a leak. Not to mention that "Collateral Murder" was literally a video about the US military murdering journalists and then killing first responders. If they were willing to cover up their killing of US journalists, god knows what they'd be willing to do in Assange's case.