Wikileaks Julian Assange is Being Handed to the Wolves
WikiLeaks’ Assange should surrender to UK rather than stay at embassy indefinitely – Ecuador Foreign Minister
ANDREW CHEETHAM1 day ago
‘The UK will never let Julian Assange just leave the country, so he should surrender, Ecuador’s foreign minister said. The only other option is life self-imprisonment at the Ecuadoran embassy.
“Mr. Assange has basically two options: to stay indefinitely because the British authorities have told us … that they will never authorize a safe passage for him to leave the embassy to a third country, and the other alternative is to surrender,” Foreign Minister José Valencia FM Mundo.
Ecuadorian ministry of foreign affairs releases new statement on Assange: “The situation currently has two options for Mr. Assange, to stay indefinitely, or to surrender [to arrest and extradition the US] and we believe the latter (surrender) is the most positive for him”Cancillería Ecuador✔@CancilleriaEcSobre Assange | “Vemos que la situación actualmente tiene dos opciones para el señor Assange, quedarse indefinidamente, o que se entregue, y ésta creemos es la más positiva para él”, @ValenciaJoseEc en @fmmundo1:13 PM – Jan 10, 2019
While securing safety assurances from the British side would be ideal, “you cannot continue insisting on something that will not happen,” Valencia stressed, noting that Ecuador believes that it will be “most positive” for Assange to leave the diplomatic compound and face the British law – and by extension a possible extradition to the US.
Assange has been stranded at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 when the diplomatic mission shielded him from a UK court trial for skipping bail. The move was meant to protect him from possible extradition to the US, where, Assange believes, he would face an unfair trial and a long detention for publishing American secrets. The concern was fueled last year after court papers in the US in an unrelated case mentioned a secret indictment against Assange.
The WikiLeaks editor was granted political asylum and Ecuadoran citizenship by the Latin American country’s previous president Rafael Correa. But under the new leadership of President Lenín Moreno Ecuador sought rapprochement with the US, which apparently affected the conditions for Assange. He was eventually denied means of communication and visiting rights, effectively turning his embassy stay into solitary confinement.’
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