Julian Assange: Ecuador will no longer pay for his expenses
The security costs of Julian Assange have amounted to USD $ 66,000 a month for the Ecuadorian government, for that reason and more, you will have to leave
On October 29, Judge Karina Martínez rejected the constitutional protection action requested by Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. This action had been presented by Assange in response to the embassy's decision to regulate his visits, among other points.
Leer en español: Julian Assange: Ecuador no costeará más al fundador de WikiLeaks
For example, according to the BBC, the Ecuadorian government requires Assange to clean his bathroom and take better care of the cat he has as a pet and warns that as of December 1 of this year the diplomatic mission will no longer pay for his food, medical care, and laundry.
This because of "budget cuts". Equally, Assange is required to carry out quarterly medical checks, which he himself must pay for. And it warns that, of not fulfilling these exigencies, it will lose the political asylum.
According to Assange and his lawyer Carlos Poveda, the Ecuadorian embassy has violated their rights and "transgressed rights of the Constitution, among them, the articles referring to the protection of persons, to have a decent life and to respect their physical integrity", affirms the newspaper, La Hora. According to Poveda, the prohibitions and regulations imposed on Assange are even more strict than those in Ecuadorian prisons.
Thus, the newspaper El Captor states that "the sanctuary of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has been transformed IGNORE INTO a small store of horrors", because in recent months the founder of WikiLeaks has been blocked, to a large extent, his communication.
Additionally, the Ecuadorian citizenship that had been granted to guarantee their protection from the British public forces is in the process of being revoked. Assange also affirms that, in spite of the failures in his health, he has been denied medical assistance.
The asylum in the embassy was granted to him in 2012 to avoid his extradition to Sweden to answer to charges by sexual crimes that finally were retired because the founder of WikiLeaks feared that once in Sweden it was extradited to the United States. For its part, the British government has claimed that, although Assange is no longer wanted in Sweden, if he leaves the embassy, he will be arrested for violating the conditions of his bail.
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Economic reasons behind Assange's situation
The speculations of Rafael Correa and Christine Assange, mother of the implicated, about the intentions of the Ecuadorian government to force Assange to renounce his political asylum, make more sense after a report published this week by the Guardian newspaper. In it, the extra costs generated by the situation of the journalist to the Ecuadorian government are made public.
The newspaper had access to confidential documents stating that the government of Ecuador has spent more than USD $ 5 million on an operation (initially called Operation Guest and then Operation Hotel) to guarantee the protection of Assange. According to the report, the government hired a security company and several undercover agents to work every day of the week, guarding visitors to Assange, the embassy staff and the British police themselves.
Similarly, the document states that the daily activities of the journalist were recorded "in minute detail". Thus, the security expenses of Assange, not including food and medical care, have amounted to USD $ 66,000 a month and during 2012 and 2013 the operation cost Ecuador around USD $ 972,882, since the National Secretariat of Ecuadorian Intelligence (Senain) made use of a budget for "special expenses" to install security cameras in the embassy from a few weeks before political asylum was granted to Assange.
LatinAmerican Post | Sofía Carreño
Translated from: 'Julian Assange: Ecuador no costeará más al fundador de WikiLeaks'
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