Ecuado­r withdr­aws asylum for repeat­edly violat­ing intern­ationa­l conven­tions, says Presid­ent Moreno­QUITO: President Lenin Moreno’s government withdrew the Ecuadoran citizenship granted to Julian Assange, acting before the WikiLeak founder’s arrest in London Thursday, Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said. Assange was evicted from Ecuador’s embassy in London and arrested by British police, ending a nearly seven year standoff after Quito ended asylum for the Australian-born fugitive. Moreno tweeted that Ecuador acted within its “sovereign rights” when it withdrew Assange’s asylum “for repeatedly violating international conventions and the protocol of co-habitation.”In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. Assange has been living at Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012 when he sought refuge there after being accused of sexual assault in Sweden. Assange’s “discourteous and aggressive behavior” and threats from WikiLeaks towards Ecuador have led to a point “where the asylum of M. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said.

Source: The Express Tribune April 11, 2019 13:18 UTC