Report: Ecuadorian Government To Hand Over Julian Assange

Time may be up for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. According to a report from The Intercept, the Ecuadorian government is prepared to withdraw Assange’s asylum, thereby handing him over to British authorities.

ECUADOR’S PRESIDENT Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit (Moreno has been using a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed, actual purpose of the President’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012, eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.

Moreno’s itinerary also notably includes a trip to Madrid, where he will meet with Spanish officials still seething over Assange’s denunciation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Spain’s central government against protesters marching for Catalonia independence. Almost three months ago, Ecuador blocked Assange from accessing the internet, and Assange has not been able to communicate with the outside world ever since. The primary factor in Ecuador’s decision to silence him was Spanish anger over Assange’s tweets about Catalonia.

According to The Intercept’s source, they’re close to finalizing the arrangement, and it could all go down in the next few weeks.

The central oddity of Assange’s case – that he has been effectively imprisoned for eight years despite never having been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime – is virtually certain to be prolonged once Ecuador hands him over to the U.K. Even under the best-case scenario, it appears highly likely that Assange will continue to be imprisoned by British authorities.

The only known criminal proceeding Assange currently faces is a pending 2012 arrest warrant for “failure to surrender” – basically a minor bail violation that arose when he obtained asylum from Ecuador rather than complying with bail conditions by returning to court for a hearing on his attempt to resist extradition to Sweden.

That offense carries a prison term of three months and a fine, though it is possible that the time Assange has already spent in prison in the UK could be counted against that sentence.

If you recall, Assange had his internet access slashed three months ago after violating an agreement he had with Ecuador. He was told to refrain from meddling in international affairs while under Ecuador’s protection, but he violated that after tweeting support for “a secessionist group in Spain.”

Again, this is expected to go down in the next few weeks, but it could happen as early as this week.

"The withdrawal of asylum and physical ejection of Assange could come as early as this week."https://t.co/WqfDE4oA70

— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) July 21, 2018

The editor-in-chief of RT says the Ecuadorian government – now highly subservient to the west under @Lenin's government – will withdraw its asylum grant to Julian Assange and hand him over to the UK. People pretending to believe in press freedom will cheer if he's sent to the US: https://t.co/201D4UeDte

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 20, 2018

Which is the greater threat to press freedom: (a) sending Julian Assange to the US to be prosecuted by the Sessions DOJ for publishing classified and hacked docs or (b) Donald Trump tweeting mean insults at Chuck Todd and Wolf Blitzer and being rude to Jim Acosta?

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 20, 2018

The above report that UK & Ecuador are preparing to turn Assange over to UK appears to be true. Big question is whether the US will indict him & seek his extradition, the way Sessions & Pompeo vowed they would. Can't wait to see how many fake press freedom defenders support that.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 20, 2018

Tick tock. We’ll see what happens.