In a statement, WikiLeaks said Friday Ecuador had "threatened to remove his protection and summarily cut off his access to the outside world."
It added that the embassy has refused journalists and human rights organizations to see him as well as installed signal jammers to prevent phone calls and internet access.
Wikileaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon arrived in Ecuador on Thursday to launch the case.
The whistleblower has been holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 when he was granted asylum as part of a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden where he was facing allegations of sexual assault. The case has since been dropped but as Assange fears US extradition due to his work with Wikileaks, he has remained in place.
The accusation comes days after a leaked document revealed a new set of house rules Assange must adhere to in London.
The memo, which was written in Spanish and published by Ecuadorean website Codigo Vidrio, specifies that Assange must pay for his own expenses like food, medical and laundry from December, that visitors must have prior authorization, and that he must not only keep the spaces inside the embassy clean, but also take care of his cat.
It says if the 47-year-old doesn't comply, he could not only risk losing his pet -- but asylum, too.
A member of Assange's legal team, Carlos Poveda told CNN that the rules were a "unilateral imposition from Ecuador in order to weaken the asylum granted to Assange (by) establishing conditions that are stronger than a jail."
CNN contacted the Ecuadorean Foreign Affairs Ministry for comment on the leaked document, which isn't on official embassy paper or signed by anyone, but has yet to receive an official response.
No comments:
Post a Comment