Moreno's government cuts Assange's internet access at London embassy
- by Louis Holland
- in Business
- — Mar 29, 2018
The Government of Ecuador suspended the systems allowing Julian Assange to communicate with the outside from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the citizen remains in a situation of worldwide protection for six years due to risks to his life and integrity.
Assange has been living inside the embassy since June 2012, when he entered the building to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes, which he has always denied. Monday, for example, he called the expulsion of Russian diplomats from countries around the world, including Britain and the United States, "poor diplomacy".
British Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan on Tuesday said it was time "that this miserable little worm walked out of the embassy and gave himself up to British justice".
"The government of Ecuador warns that the behavior of Assange, with his messages through social networks, puts at risk the good relations the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the states of the European Union and other nations", the government said in a statement Wednesday.
The Australian promised past year to not interfere in other countries' affairs while in the mission, an Ecuadorian government statement said.
Assange responded to Duncan's comment with a tweet.
The Ecuadorean government is anxious that Assange's use of social media can hurt the "good relations the country keeps with the United Kingdom, other countries in the European Union and other nations", and said it was prepared to take further actions if Assange keeps breaking his commitment.
In 2016, Ecuador briefly suspended his internet connection for posting documents online that were seen as having an impact on the USA presidential election from which Donald Trump emerged the victor.
Assange claimed the allegations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the USA to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks' publication of secret U.S. military and diplomatic materials in 2010.
In December, Ecuador made Assange a citizen and unsuccessfully tried to register him as a diplomat with immunity as part of its efforts to have him leave the facility without risk of being detained.
