Ecuador president: Assange a problem
23 January, 2018
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Sunday described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an “inherited problem” that has created “more than a nuisance” for his government.
“We hope to have a positive result” on the issue, he said in an interview with television networks.
Earlier this month, Ecuador announced it had granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.
Moreno said his country was continuing to seek mediation involving “important people,” without specifying whom he meant.
Assange fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes, which he denies, and has remained in the building ever since.
Sweden later shelved its investigation, but Assange faces arrest by British authorities for fleeing justice in the Swedish case.
He fears British authorities will then allow his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for publication by WikiLeaks of classified information in 2010.