WikiLeaks Founder Assange Granted Ecuadorian Passport – Reports

This follows recent reports that suggested Assange was going to be evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London after pushing President Lenin Moreno “over the edge.”

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told teleSUR Thursday that officials were seeking a third-party negotiator to mediate Assange’s safe passage from the UK-based embassy. Espinosa called Assange’s living arrangements as “untenable.”

Though it is unclear, talk of Assange’s eviction is speculated to have been sparked by his criticism of Moreno’s allies and his support of the Catalan independence movement.

“We have reminded Mr. Assange that he has no reason to interfere in Ecuadorian politics because his status does not allow it,” the president said in an interview with El Pais. “Nor in that of nations that are our friends. He does not have the right to do so and he has committed himself to this.”

Assange later responded to Moreno by saying that “if President Moreno wants to gag my reporting of human rights abuses in Spain he should say so explicitly — together with the legal basis.”

The 46-year-old founder has been a tenant at the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 when he was granted asylum by Ecuador following sexual assault allegations. Though the charges were ultimately dropped, Assange continued to stay at the embassy over fears he would be extradited to the US in connection with WikiLeaks’ release of military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.