Julian Assange launches legal action against Ecuador

Julian Assange has launched legal action against the government of Ecuador, arguing that new house rules for his stay in the countrys London embassy violate his fundamental rights and freedoms, his lawyers said on Friday.

Assanges lawyer, Baltasar Garzn, said the WikiLeaks founder was suing Ecuadors foreign minister, Jos Valencia, for isolating and muzzling him with the new rules, which order Assange to avoid making online political comments and to take better care of his cat.

He has been held in inhuman conditions for more than six years, Garzn said, describing the conditions regarding the cat as denigrating.

He added Assange had not had his internet restored even though the new rules allow him to use the embassy wifi for his personal computer and phone.

The move follows a deterioration in relations between the Ecuadorian government and the WikiLeaks founder, who was granted refuge at Ecuadors London embassy in 2012 while on bail in the UK over sexual assault allegations against him in Sweden.

Valencia said the country would respond to the lawsuit and that it had the absolute prerogative and right to protect its offices, workers and Assange himself inside its embassy.

Protocol has to be respected, whether they like it or not. Its a norm to regulate Mr Assanges stay in our embassy, he told journalists, adding that the rules met with international standards and Ecuadorean laws.

Garzn said the new rules had been imposed unilaterally and WikiLeaks had not been properly consulted about its contents.

Newly-released Ecuadorian government documents this week laid bare an unorthodox attempt to extricate the WikiLeaks founder from his embassy hideaway in London by naming him as a political counsellor to the countrys embassy in Moscow.

Under the new rules, Assange must obtain approval for all visitors from diplomatic staff three days in advance. He is banned from activities that could be considered as political or interfering with the internal affairs of other states, according to a memo seen by the Guardian.

In a statement posted on Friday, WikiLeaks said Ecuador was now a strategic ally of the United States and there was a heightened risk of extradition for Assange.

Earlier this week, US congressmen wrote an open letter to Ecuadors president, Lenn Moreno, which stated that to advance crucial matters ... from economic co-operation to counter-narcotics assistance to the possible return of a USAID mission to Ecuador, we must first resolve a significant challenge created by your predecessor, Rafael Correa the status of Julian Assange.

The Ecuadorian government partially lifted restrictions on Assanges internet access last weekend, but stipulated he would only be allowed to use the embassy wifi for his personal computer and phone.

The WikiLeaks Twitter account stated on Thursday that, after US pressure, moves had accelerated to strip Assange of Ecuadorian citizenship. His citizenship status is a barrier to rendering him to another state as article 79 of Ecuadors constitution forbids extradition of citizens, it added.

Assange was made an Ecuadorian citizen last December in an attempt by the nations foreign ministry to resolve the political impasse over his continued presence in the UK. The 47-year-old was naturalised after living for five-and-a-half years in the Latin American countrys cramped embassy in Knightsbridge, central London.

Earlier this year, the UK Foreign Office revealed Ecuador had asked for Assange, who was born in Australia, to be accredited as a diplomat. The request was dismissed.

The Ecuadorian initiative was intended to confer legal immunity on the WikiLeaks founder, allowing him to slip out of the embassy and Britain without being arrested for breaching his former bail conditions.

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Julian Assange launches legal action against Ecuador