The announcement was made Thursday, by the head of diplomacy of this state of South America. The Australian has been a refugee in the Ecuador Embassy in London since 2012.
A little more than five years after finding refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London, Julian Assange ended up getting the nationality of t state of South America . The announcement was made Thursday, January 11, by the head of the Ecuadorian diplomacy.
Officially, “ c ette naturalization was granted on December 12, 2017.” At a press conference, María Fernanda Espinosa also said that Quito had asked London to grant diplomatic status. What was refused in the wake of the British government. “The United Kingdom did not accede to this request, and we are not in discussions with Ecuador on this issue,” said a spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Ministry.
On Twitter, Julian Assange posted a photo of him with the jersey of the Ecuadorian national football team.
— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) January 10, 2018
“To submit to justice”
The e founder of WikiLeaks laid his cards in June 2012 in the Embassy of Ecuador in London. At the time, fearing extradition to Sweden for alleged rape he denied, the 46-year-old Australian had found asylum there .
The Swedish prosecutor’s office has since closed the case. But Julian Assange fears to be arrested, if he leaves the embassy, then extradited and tried in the United States for the publication by WikiLeaks of military secrets and American diplomatic documents in 2010. The release of these documents has earned him since a parity status across the Atlantic.
“Ecuador knows that the way to solve this problem is that Julian Assange leaves the embassy to submit to justice,” said the spokesman of the British diplomacy.
