Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno signaling his government’s desire to end the long sojourn of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange in its London Embassy, said on Friday that he had never supported Assange’s leaking activities.
Moreno said any eviction of Assange from the embassy had to be carried out correctly and through dialogue, but he displayed no sympathy for Assange’s political agenda as a leaker of confidential documents.
“I have never agreed with what Mr. [Julian] Assange does. I have never supported the intervention of private emails to be able to obtain information, regardless of how valuable it may be,” he said.
Moreno described Assange’s residence at his government’s embassy as a hangover of Ecuador’s previous administration, which considered Assange’s life to be in danger. It was considered a real possibility that the death sentence would be applied if he was extradited to the United States.
“The death penalty does not exist in Ecuador and we knew that possibility existed and that is why we … the only thing we want is a guarantee that his life will not be in danger,” Moreno said.
Moreno made his comments in Madrid and said the British and Ecuadorean governments were in constant contact about Assange.
“We are permanently speaking with the British government, with the ambassador, their representative in Ecuador. The only person I have never spoken to is Mr. Assange,” Moreno said.
Discussions over the future of Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for six years, are ongoing but the matter was not discussed during a recent visit to the UK by Moreno, a British government spokesman said on Friday.
From The Epoch Times