Ecuador grants citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Assange: foreign minister
By IANS | Published: 11th January 2018 10:08 PM |
Last Updated: 11th January 2018 10:08 PM | A+A A- |
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.(File |AP)
QUITO: Ecuador grants citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Assange said the Ecuador foreign minister on Thursday.
The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.
Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.
Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy.
Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.
A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.
