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Ecuador close to evicting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: Greenwald

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Assange has staged occasional public appearances from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London

Ecuadorian authorities are about to expel WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from their London embassy, investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald reported. Assange was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to the US.

The UK and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno are “close to finalizing” or have already finalized a deal to evict Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, according to an article published by The Intercept.

According to reporter Glenn Greenwald, Ecuador could withdraw its protection of the WikiLeaks founder in a matter of days. Greenwald first drew widespread public attention by publishing data provided by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

According to Greenwald’s article, Ecuador’s Moreno used the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit as a pretext to travel to London and discuss handing over Assange to British officials. Moreno has been critical of Assange, describing him as an “inherited problem,” a “pebble in the shoe,” who has created “more than a nuisance” for his government.

However, while visiting London, Moreno told DW that Assange “should be able to continue enjoying his right to asylum and the respect that this asylum affords him,” and appeared to suggest he would be welcome at the embassy “as long as he meets the requirements.”

“His asylum status prevents him from talking about politics and intervening in the politics of friendly countries. That is why we have had cut off his communications,” Moreno said.

In March, Ecuador’s government cut off Assange’s internet connection after he denounced the arrest of a Catalan separatist politician on social media.

Wearing out his welcome

Assange first faced legal troubles shortly after his platform WikiLeaks published several tranches of confidential US documents in 2010. In November that year, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for the internet activist over allegations of rape and sexual assault. He was detained in London that December and placed under house arrest, while continuing to fight his extradition to Sweden.

Assange repeatedly stated he was not opposed to facing the allegations in Sweden, but was afraid that Stockholm would deliver him to the US to be tried for publishing secrets, where he could face harsh prison sentences or even the death penalty.

After a UK judge ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden, the Australian-born activist sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. Quito granted him asylum in 2012. However, ties between Assange and his Ecuadorian hosts gradually soured as his yearslong stay irritated Western nations.

Hunt: ‘British police will have a warm welcome’ for Assange

Sweden dropped the rape allegations case against Assange in 2017, saying there was “no possibility of arresting Assange in the foreseeable future,” but the UK later upheld its own arrest warrant against Assange for breaching bail to seek refuge in the embassy.

If expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange will likely face the minor “failure to surrender” charge. However, it is possible that UK prosecutors would argue that his prolonged evasion of justice amounted to more serious contempt of court, which carries a prison term of up to two years. During that time, he would likely need to fend off Washington’s demands to be extradited to the US.

Earlier this week, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Assange has “serious charges” laid against him, but added the UK was “a country of due process.”

“At any time he wants to he is free to walk out onto the street (…) and the British police will have a warm welcome for him” Hunt said.

Embassy cuts Assange’s internet

Quito officials gave Assange Ecuadorian citizenship earlier this year in a failed attempt to resolve the impasse. In March, the embassy cut Assange’s internet access after he questioned Theresa May’s claim that Russia was behind the Skripal poisoning.

His actions “put at risk the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the European Union states and other nations,” the Ecuadorian diplomats said at the time.

Ecuador cuts off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s communications

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Ecuador, cuts off WikiLeaks

Ecuador, cuts off WikiLeaks

Ecuador has said the decision was made after Assange violated a deal on not interfering in other countries’ affairs. Assange had questioned UK’s accusation that Russia was behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

Ecuador’s government on Wednesday said it was cutting off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s communications outside the nation’s London embassy, where he has been living for more than five years.

Ecuadorian officials said the measure was taken in response to Assange’s recent activity on social media, which was seen as a violation of a 2017 written agreement that prevents him from sending any messages that could interfere with the South American nation’s relations with other countries.

They said Assange’s posts “put at risk the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the European Union states and other nations,” so they had decided to suspend his internet access “in order to prevent any potential harm.”

Assange took to Twitter on Monday to question Britain’s accusation that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the English city of Salisbury. He also questioned the expulsion of Russian diplomats by Britain and other countries.

Assange’s tweets drew a strong response from the British Foreign Office minister, Alan Duncan, on Tuesday. He said it was time “that this miserable little worm walked out of the embassy and gave himself up to British justice.”

Ecuador gave Assange asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he denied.

Assange argued that Sweden would eventually extradite him to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked classified military and diplomatic documents.

Sweden dropped the case, but Assange remains subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

Earlier this year, Ecuador said it had granted the Australian-born Assange citizenship.

ap/sms (AP, AFP, dpa)

Sweden to interview Wikileaks founder

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free-wikileaksEcuador has agreed to allow Sweden to interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside its embassy. The Australian has been sheltering in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid arrest on a Swedish criminal warrant.

Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that “in the coming weeks” a Swedish judge will be admitted inside its diplomatic compound to take a statement from the 45-year-old Australian national.

Assange is wanted for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation in Sweden but has been inside Ecuador’s UK mission for more than four years in a bid to avoid extradition.

Assange denies the charge, saying the sexual contact was consensual and the charges politically motivated to retaliate over his role in Wikileaks, which publishes leaked data that is often embarrassing for governments and officials.

A long-running saga

Assange won an important victory before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Februrary which had found that Sweden and Britain violated his fundamental rights.

Ecuador has maintained it would allow Sweden to take custody of Assange if Stockholm guarantees that he would not be sent to the United States for prosecution over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 US diplomatic cables in 2010.

Since then the anti-secrecy group has continued to leak files gleaned by hackers including emails from within the Democratic National Committee that suggested collusion between top party officials and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The party’s chair and other top officials resigned following the revelations.

Wikileaks has also been criticized for dumping unfiltered data including a recent email dump from Turkey’s ruling political party that had little apparent public interest value but included the personal contact information of women voters in nearly every Turkish province.

jar/kl (AFP, EFE)

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/sweden-to-interview-wikileaks-founder/a-19464749

Deadly earthquake hits Ecuador

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_89275321_ecuador_quake_2016A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake has killed at least 28 people in Ecuador, Vice-President Jorge Glas says.

A state of emergency was declared in six provinces and the National Guard has been mobilised.

The quake, centred near the coastal town of Muisne, destroyed an overpass in the city of Guayaquil about 300km (190 miles) away, local media say.

The tremor also shook buildings in the capital Quito, forcing residents to flee their homes.

“We have 16 people dead in the city of Portoviejo, 10 in Manta and two in the province of Guayas,” Mr Glas said at a news conference.

Quito resident Zoila Villena told the Associated Press news agency: “I’m in a state of panic,”

“My building moved a lot and things fell to the floor. Lots of neighbours were screaming and kids crying,” she said.

Parts of the capital were for some time without electricity.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at a depth of 19.2km (11.9 miles).

Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said “tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to one meter above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Ecuador”.

Neighbouring Peru issued a tsunami alert for its northern shore.

Source: bbc.com

Ecuador files note of protest with Turkey MFA over actions of Erdoğan’s bodyguards

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turks crimeInterior Minister of Ecuador responded to the actions of Turkish presidential bodyguards during Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Ecuador.

Ecuador’s Interior Minister José Serrano Salgado admonished the conduct of Erdoğan’s bodyguards, demanding to withdraw their diplomatic passports.

With respect to the incident, the Interior Minister also filed a note of protest with the Turkish MFA.

On Saturday, the bodyguards of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan beat women, who staged a protest during Erdoğan’s speech.

Video – ‘Murderer!’ Asesino Female protesters interrupt Erdogan’s speech in Ecuador

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Erdogan AsesinoEcuador has summoned the Turkish ambassador in Quito to formally protest the treatment of three of its citizens who were forcibly removed after demonstrating against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he was speaking at an event. The three women were removed from Quito’s Centre for Higher National Studies on Thursday by Erdogan’s security personnel when they interrupted his speech. Local media were also prevented from filming the altercation

 

 

 

“Erdogan’s guard broke the nose of Ecuadorean lawmaker Diego Vintimilla.” chanting Turkey=ISIS

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Protesters chant pro-Kurdish slogans as they protest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Quito, Ecuador on Feb. 4, 2016. | Photo: Giran Ozcan

Protesters chant pro-Kurdish slogans as they protest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Quito, Ecuador on Feb. 4, 2016. | Photo: Giran Ozcan

The incident occurred during a Kurdish solidarity protest against Turkey’s president as he visited Ecuador.

Supporters of the Kurdish struggle took to the streets Thursday in Ecuador’s capital Quito to protest Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Ecuador on an official two-day visit.

The protesters gathered in opposition to Ankara’s military operation in the Kurdish southeast areas of Turkey against the militant PKK group. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since August.

Protesters were heard chanting slogans such as ”Long live Kurdistan,” “Murderer Erdogan” and “Out with Erdogan” as the Turkish leader entered the IAEN University in Quito.

Giran Ozcan, the Latin American representative of the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), was at the protest and told teleSUR that Ecuadorean lawmaker Diego Vintimilla, who was with the protesters, was injured in a confrontation with one of Erdogan’s security guards.

“Erdogan’s guard broke the nose of Ecuadorean lawmaker Diego Vintimilla.”

“People of Ecuador realise that a murderer is visiting their country today,” Ozcan said as he joined the protest against Erdogan. “Through President Erdogan’s support for ISIS (Islamic State group) he is responsible for the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Syria.”

Ozcan added that Erdogan is responsible for the killing of hundreds of civilians in Kurdish towns such as Cizre and Sur as part of his push for consolidating power in Turkey.

According to the Turkish Human Rights Commision, at least 167 civilians have been killed in Turkey’s majority-Kurdish southeast since August last year.

Erdogan met with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in the capital in order to finalize economic deals between the two nations, which Erdogan described as “strategic” and the beginning of a golden era between Turkey and Ecuador.

Despite being far from Turkey, Ozcan said the protest was an important action where “the people of Ecuador are showing solidarity with the Kurdish people and people of the Middle East against aspiring dictators such as Erdogan and evil organisations that he supports such as ISIS!”

Turkey and Ecuador currently have trade agreements that amount to almost US$200 million. Erdogan said the two countries aim to increase trade to “US$500 or even to US$1 billion,” without specifying deadlines.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:

“http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Erdogan-Guard-Attacks-Pro-Kurdish-Lawmaker-in-Ecuador-20160204-0050.html”. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Ecuador, Sweden Sign Deal Facilitating Assange’s Interrogation

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1014956193Ecuador and Sweden have sealed an agreement on legal assistance in criminal affairs, which noticeably facilitates the interrogation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – “The agreement, without any doubt, is a tool that strengthens bilateral relations and facilitates, for example, the execution of such legal actions as the questioning of Mr. Assange, isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,” the ministry said in a statement.

The countries have been negotiating on this document since summer 2015 following the request of the Swedish authorities to the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office on Assange’s questioning in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum.

Assange is wanted for questioning by Swedish authorities since 2010 on accusations of sexual coercion and rape. In April, he consented to the prosecutor’s conditions for the interrogation procedure.

The WikiLeaks founder argues that Sweden’s rape charges are a ploy to extradite him to the United States, where he is wanted for publishing thousands of leaked top-secret military documents and diplomatic cables.

Assange, an Australian national, launched the WikiLeaks website in 2006. Since then, the site has released millions of classified papers.

Source: sputniknews.com

Ecuador Feared Britain Would Storm Embassy to Grab Assange

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1028527234New documents reveal the staff in the Ecuadorian embassy feared that the UK authorities would attempt to storm its London embassy in an effort to spring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, holed-up inside to avoid extradition.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2012 when the South American country granted him political asylum. He was avoiding extradition to Sweden on charges relating to sexual molestation and one count of unlawful coercion. Assange denies the accusations which were dropped in August 2015 under the statutes of limitation.
Assange was avoiding being extradited to Sweden as he feared onward extradition to the US where he is wanted, under the Espionage Act over WikiLeaks releasing the Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning material, disclosing nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
The UK Metropolitan Police (MPS) announced Monday it would stop deploying officers, guarding the entrance to the embassy 24/7, which had cost US$17 million over three years. “The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the Embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him. However, it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence,” it said in a statement.

Ambassador Took Police Removal as Threat
However, it has now emerged that officials at the embassy were told of the intention to stop round-the-clock covert surveillance in August. Documents seen by BuzzFeed show that UK Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire visited the embassy on August 13 and spoke to the ambassador, Carlos Ortiz.
Following the meeting Swire said: “Ecuador must recognize that its decision to harbor Mr Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice. As a result, some of the serious sexual allegations against him will now expire.
“It is completely unacceptable that the British taxpayer has had to foot the bill for this abuse of diplomatic relations.”
“I want to make clear that as an allegation of rape remains outstanding, the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden.
“I have instructed our Ambassador in Quito to reiterate to Ecuador that the continuing failure to expedite the Swedish Prosecutor’s interview, and to bring this situation to an end, is being seen as a growing stain on the country’s reputation.”
Notes from the meeting, by embassy officials say: “The pressure of budget spending and what will be spent in the next five years is a concern in view of the politics of austerity that the UK government has adopted because of the economic crisis affecting the country.”

Source: sputniknews.com

Sweden and Ecuador to begin Julian Assange talks next week

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Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Sweden will begin talks with Ecuador about Julian Assange on Monday, after Stockholm moved to break the deadlock over five-year-old rape allegations against him.

Sweden initially rejected a demand by Ecuador that the two countries establish a formal agreement on judicial cooperation before Swedish prosecutors could interrogate the WikiLeaks founder in Ecuador’s embassy in London, saying it did not negotiate bilateral treaties.

But this month the government agreed to talks specifically to address the stalemate over Assange, who claimed asylum in the embassy in 2012.

Two women made allegations against Assange five years ago in Stockholm, but no charges were brought because the prosecutor said she was unable to interrogate him. Assange says he had no choice but to seek asylum as Sweden declined to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges if he travelled to Stockholm.

The political intervention by Sweden marks a new development in the case. Swedish politicians have, with very few exceptions, insisted they must not interfere, saying it is a purely judicial matter.

“We have agreed to what the Ecuadorians asked for,” said Cecilia Riddselius, the Swedish justice ministry official responsible for the case. “It was a political decision to have this discussion.

“Normally ministers cannot interfere in individual cases, it is part of our legal system, this is a strict rule. At the same time, it is under the competence of the government to enter into agreements with other states. A decision was taken to actually raise it to the level of the cabinet.”

Riddselius said the state secretary, Anne Linde, would open the negotiations on Monday on behalf of the justice ministry. The justice ministry’s director general for international affairs, Anna-Karin Svensson, the foreign ministry’s director general for legal affairs, Anders Rönquist, and Riddselius herself would also be involved. She said Ecuador’s under-secretary of state Férnando Yepez Lasso would lead the talks for Ecuador.

Ecuador’s embassy in Stockholm declined to comment, but said the makeup of its delegation was still being discussed.

“We do not normally enter into bilateral agreements and encourage states to enter multilateral ones instead,” Riddselius said. “But considering this specific case and our willingness to move the case forward, we are open to discuss this. It will be a general agreement but we hope it will be applicable to the Assange case.”

Sexual assault accusations against Assange, who has not been formally charged with any crime, expired this month under Sweden’s statute of limitations. In March Swedish prosecutors had pledged to interrogate Assange in London while the allegations were still current.

Assange condemned the “incompetence” of Swedish authorities in failing to meet this deadline after he consistently demanded that prosecutors interview him in London so he could protest his innocence. The outstanding rape allegation can be prosecuted until August 2020.

The UK accuses Ecuador of preventing the proper course of justice by granting Assange asylum in London and is frustrated at the mounting costs of policing the embassy.

As recently as July, Sweden turned down a request from the UN to consider a guarantee that political refugees wanted for questioning would not face extradition to a third country.

Riddselius said that in her 20 years at the justice ministry she had never encountered a bilateral agreement of the kind that would be negotiated on Monday. “It is new ground, very unusual, it is something we try to avoid,” she said.

The negotiations would be complex, she said, and it was impossible to say how long they might take. She said Sweden had drafted an agreement and respected Ecuador’s need to examine it thoroughly and propose changes.

Source: The Guardian