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The Living Force
Ecuador is seeking a “third country or a personality” to mediate a final settlement with Britain to resolve the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
Ecuador seeks mediator to resolve ‘untenable’ Assange standoff: minister Tuesday 9 January 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1222411/world
Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the South American country was “considering and exploring the possibility of mediation” to end the “untenable” five-year impasse.
Assange moved into Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 to avoid arrest over now-dropped Swedish rape charges. He remains over fears he will be extradited to the United States and put on trial for WikiLeaks publishing leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.
“No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out,” she told foreign correspondents in Quito.
It is the first time Ecuador has proposed mediation to resolve the case.
Swedish prosecutors initially wanted Assange extradited to face the sexual assault allegations, but they dropped their investigation into him in May 2017. However, he still faces arrest by British police for violating the terms of his 2012 bail.
The Last Straw: Assange at Risk of Being Kicked Out of Ecuador Embassy in UK
https://sputniknews.com/world/201801101060630795-assange-ecuador-embassy/
Assange has been holed up in the diplomatic building in London's wealthy Knightsbridge neighborhood since 2012, when he was granted political asylum by Ecuador following sex assault allegations in Sweden, which he has consistently denied.
Although the case against him was later dropped, the Australian remained inside the embassy over fears he'd be extradited to the US in connection with WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But now Assange has apparently drawn the wrath of the South American country's president, and Ecuador is seeking out a third country or individual to mediate his safe passage from its embassy in the United Kingdom.
Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told teleSUR on Thursday that the country was considering settling the matter through third-party negotiators, describing Assange's current living arrangements as "untenable."
"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," the foreign minister reportedly said.
Ecuador's decision could have been influenced by Assange's criticism of Moreno's overseas allies and his support of the Catalan independence movement on social media.
Moreno had previously called on the WikiLeaks founder to "respect the situation he is in," avoid "intervening in the politics" of countries friendly to Ecuador and making controversial and inflammatory political statements.
"We have reminded Mr. Assange that he has no reason to interfere in Ecuadorian politics because his status does not allow it," the president said in an interview with El Pais. "Nor in that of nations that are our friends. He does not have the right to do so and he has committed himself to this."
But the outspoken Australian hit back on Twitter in September 2017, saying, "if President Moreno wants to gag my reporting of human rights abuses in Spain he should say so explicitly — together with the legal basis."
Ecuador seeks mediator to resolve ‘untenable’ Assange standoff: minister Tuesday 9 January 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1222411/world
Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the South American country was “considering and exploring the possibility of mediation” to end the “untenable” five-year impasse.
Assange moved into Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 to avoid arrest over now-dropped Swedish rape charges. He remains over fears he will be extradited to the United States and put on trial for WikiLeaks publishing leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.
“No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out,” she told foreign correspondents in Quito.
It is the first time Ecuador has proposed mediation to resolve the case.
Swedish prosecutors initially wanted Assange extradited to face the sexual assault allegations, but they dropped their investigation into him in May 2017. However, he still faces arrest by British police for violating the terms of his 2012 bail.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltered in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for five years, may be thrown out of his asylum after pushing Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno over the edge.
The Last Straw: Assange at Risk of Being Kicked Out of Ecuador Embassy in UK
https://sputniknews.com/world/201801101060630795-assange-ecuador-embassy/
Assange has been holed up in the diplomatic building in London's wealthy Knightsbridge neighborhood since 2012, when he was granted political asylum by Ecuador following sex assault allegations in Sweden, which he has consistently denied.
Although the case against him was later dropped, the Australian remained inside the embassy over fears he'd be extradited to the US in connection with WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But now Assange has apparently drawn the wrath of the South American country's president, and Ecuador is seeking out a third country or individual to mediate his safe passage from its embassy in the United Kingdom.
Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told teleSUR on Thursday that the country was considering settling the matter through third-party negotiators, describing Assange's current living arrangements as "untenable."
"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," the foreign minister reportedly said.
Ecuador's decision could have been influenced by Assange's criticism of Moreno's overseas allies and his support of the Catalan independence movement on social media.
Moreno had previously called on the WikiLeaks founder to "respect the situation he is in," avoid "intervening in the politics" of countries friendly to Ecuador and making controversial and inflammatory political statements.
"We have reminded Mr. Assange that he has no reason to interfere in Ecuadorian politics because his status does not allow it," the president said in an interview with El Pais. "Nor in that of nations that are our friends. He does not have the right to do so and he has committed himself to this."
But the outspoken Australian hit back on Twitter in September 2017, saying, "if President Moreno wants to gag my reporting of human rights abuses in Spain he should say so explicitly — together with the legal basis."