In
December, Assange received Ecuadorian citizenship, but the UK
indicated it would not recognize his diplomatic status if requested
by the Latin American nation, denying Assange the diplomatic immunity
that would’ve allowed him to leave.
The UN,
meanwhile, has twice ruled that Assange’s detention is unlawful.
Despite this, the judge in his most recent appeal – Emma Arbuthnot,
who said “I find arrest is a proportionate response even though
Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years.”
Judge
Arbuthnot’s impartiality in the Assange matter has been called into
question, while her husband and ex-Conservative MP, Baron James
Arbuthnot, is listed as the director of a security company along with
the former head of MI6. Not exactly friends of WikiLeaks.
Meanwhile,
Ecuador’s new president, Lenín Moreno, recently pulled funding for
security and surveillance countermeasures – and in January called
Assange an “inherited problem” that has created “more than a
nuisance” for his government. Assange has had his internet access
cut in March, and has since lost telephone and visitor privileges
aside from his attorneys.
In
addition to pressure from the U.S. and U.K., Spain is said to have
been exerting pressure on Ecuador after Assange’s support for the
separatist independence movements in Catalonia in northeast Spain.
And in
an April article from Disobedient Media, it appears as though a U.S.
military deal with Ecuador may be behind recent talk of pushing
Assange out of the embassy. "The news of Ecuador’s decision
is not only disastrous for WikiLeaks’ Editor-In-Chief, but also to
those concerned that an increased US military presence in Ecuador
will lead to an uptick in violence there.”
Ecuador
elected a new President who is working with the U.S. military-banking
complex in order to shore up their debt, beef up their military and
ostensibly in exchange, may be handing Assange over to the West
within days.
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