Fugitive whistle-blower Julian Assange might have found refuge in Bermuda — had he been prepared to gamble on a quirk of the Island’s 17th Century law.Currently hiding from arrest in Ecuador’s London embassy, the WikiLeaks founder could have sought sanctuary in a Bermudian churchyard.Local lawyer and legal blogger Peter Sanderson considers it theoretically possible, noting that in medieval times, fugitives were allowed sanctuary in churches.On his site Onionlaw, Mr Sanderson adds: “Of course, all that medieval stuff has now been abolished by statute and no longer applies in England.”But what about Bermuda?The Supreme Court Act maintains that English common law and Acts of Parliament that applied in 1612, when Bermuda was established as a colony, “shall be the laws of Bermuda”.Granted, the right to sanctuary was abolished in 1623 in England — but Mr Sanderson has found no reference to it being abolished here.In short, the Island could be the last place left where a fugitive can seek sanctuary on hallowed ground.Originally, the law allowed lamsters 40 days to quit the realm.Mr Sanderson notes that this caveat got taken out in 1530, meaning a transgressor would effectively be trapped inside the church.Similarly, Mr Assange’s Ecuadorean political asylum would cease protecting him the moment he stepped off the privileged ground of the embassy.The Australian activist, wanted for questioning by Swedish police for a charge of rape, has been dodging his arrest warrant close to two years.If the UK government decides to wait him out, Mr Sanderson muses, “he could be there for years and, as embassy residences go, this is not Chelston we’re talking about, but a first floor flat in central London”.Secret US communications released on the WikiLeaks site include a wealth of Bermudian references.However, the Island only comes up as a sanctuary in comments on the four Uighur detainees from Guantánamo Bay, relocated here in 2009.Mr Sanderson concedes that “a serious criminal” might take Westgate over permanent confinement in a local church.Useful website: www.onionlaw.blogspot.com.