President EcuadorLenín Moreno, president of Ecuador, says that Julian Assange used the embassy to spy on other countries. He would have spread incriminating photos and tried to destabilize other countries. That’s why the president put him out of the embassy.

The president expresses his accusations against the British newspaper The Guardian. According to Moreno, ‘facilities’ had been made available to Assange with which he was involved in the internal affairs of other countries. “We cannot allow our embassy to become a spy center,” says Moreno according to The Guardian. “These activities go against our asylum conditions.”

Moreno gives as a concrete example the WikiLeaks publication of documents from the Vatican in January 2019. Then the Pope’s private letters were distributed . According to WikiLeaks, those letters show an internal power struggle within the top of the Catholic Church. According to Moreno, Assange was involved.

Recently, private photos of Moreno and his family were distributed through a site that would be linked to WikiLeaks. The president states that turning off Assange was not reprisal following the leakage of those photos. Moreno says he has deported Assange because he would have tried to influence internal affairs of other countries.

Assange fled almost seven years ago to the Ecuadorian embassy in London after a British judge ruled that he should be deported to Sweden. His asylum was withdrawn last Thursday , after which he was arrested by the British police in the embassy. In the United Kingdom a possible imprisonment of up to twelve months awaits him for violating the bail conditions, writes The Guardian.

The United States now says to suspect Assange of having helped with computer breach. On Thursday, the prosecutor sent an extradition request to the United Kingdom. The American prosecutor says he can go to jail for up to five years.

According to The Guardian, Sweden is now considering reopening the earlier investigation into the alleged rapes that Assange had committed. If the country does that and also sends an extradition request to the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom decides which country Assange will be deported to. Moreno says he has been assured by the British newspaper that the Australian is not being deported to a country where he can receive the death penalty or be tortured.: