Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. Today, the President of Ecuador apparently ordered his internet access cut over a tweet the President felt endangered Ecuador’s relationship with Europe. From the BBC:
Ecuador has cut Julian Assange’s internet connection at its embassy in London, preventing him from communicating with the outside world.
The move is to prevent the WikiLeaks founder from interfering in other countries’ affairs, Ecuador said.
It comes after Mr Assange questioned accusations that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in the UK on 4 March…
He was initially staying in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sex crimes, which the 46-year-old has always denied.
The Swedish authorities have since dropped their investigation, but Mr Assange believes he will be extradited to the US for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves the building.
That’s a reference to a series of tweets Assange issued Monday criticizing the response to the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter on UK soil.
(2/3) That 21 US allies have expelled diplomats over an unresolved event in the UK and that the US expelled nearly three times as many diplomats as the UK, the alleged victim country, helps the Kremlin further a narrative that it is under conspiratorial siege led by the US.
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) March 26, 2018
(3/3) Further, while it is reasonable for Theresa May to view the Russian state as the leading suspect, so far the evidence is circumstantial & the OCPW has not yet made any independent confirmation, permitting the Kremlin push the view domestically that Russia is persecuted.
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) March 26, 2018
Technically, he’s not defending Russia but that’s sort of the gist of what he’s saying, i.e. the UK hasn’t proven its case Russia was responsible. Shortly after he published these tweets a British foreign affairs minister referred to him as a “miserable little worm.” But according to Wikileaks own Twitter account, the tweets about the UK and Russia were not the ones that led to him being cut off.
Wikileaks editor @julianassange has been gagged and isolated by order of Ecuador's new president @Lenin Moreno. He cannot tweet, speak to the press, recieve visitors or make telephone calls. Ecuador demanded that he remove the following Tweet: https://t.co/uaDAEBKtwR
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 28, 2018
Here’s the tweet in question:
In 1940 the elected president of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, was captured by the Gestapo, at the request of Spain, delivered to them and executed. Today, German police have arrested the elected president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, at the request of Spain, to be extradited.
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) March 26, 2018
Ecuador is claiming that Assange has an agreement not to tweet anything which would hurt diplomatic relations with other countries. From the Telegraph.
As part of an agreement allowing him to stay at Ecuador’s embassy, Assange is forbidden from sending any messages that would interfere with the country’s diplomatic relations other nations.
“He violated that agreement,” said Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador’s minister of foreign affairs.
She added that Ecuador’s government would be sending of a group of diplomats to meet with Assange’s legal team in London next week while also continuing a dialogue with British officials on how to resolve “an inherited problem.”
But Wikileaks is denying that claim:
Claims made by Ecuador's public affairs office that @wikileaks editor @julianassange, arguably the world's best known free speech avtivist, is under a gag agreement, are, perhaps unsurpringly, entirely false.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 28, 2018
There is now a #ReconnectJulian hashtag and apparently a gathering outside the embassy itself to protest the decision.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member