WikiLeaks says Assange to be Booted from Embassy in London
HAVANA TIMES – Supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and media crews gathered outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Friday, after the whistleblowing website Wikileaks tweeted that Assange was due to be kicked out of the building, reported dpa news.
Late Thursday WikiLeaks tweeted: “A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within ‘hours to days’ using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext – and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.”
The INA papers are a collection of documents leaked to an Ecuadorian lawmaker and which have implicated President Lenin Moreno in a corruption scandal.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry responded that “we do not respond to rumors, hypotheses or conjectures that do not have documentary support,” Quito daily El Comercio reported.
Earlier this week, Moreno accused Assange of repeatedly violating the terms of his asylum and said Quito was seeking an arrangement with Britain to allow him to leave the embassy.
Ecuador also suspects that WikiLeaks is responsible for sharing private photographs of Moreno on social media recently.
Assange has been holed up in the embassy since 2012 to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden on allegations of rape.
The Swedish judiciary has since dropped its investigation, but British authorities have said they will still arrest the Australian when he leaves the embassy because he violated his bail conditions by fleeing.
Assange says he fears being extradited to the United States where he could face charges relating to the publication of hacked government documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Christine Assange, Assange’s mother, wrote on Twitter on Friday that the US was “making its move to grab my son Julian!”
In late 2017, Assange was granted Ecuadorian citizenship.
His relations with his embassy hosts have been deteriorating for the past year, with Ecuador last year cutting off his internet.
Ecuadorian Government says this is untrue. When are you stenographer journalist going to support Julian Assange who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy for the last six years?