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

Julian Assange announced on Friday that he was suing the Ecuadorean government for violating his fundamental rights, claiming that his longtime hosts at the countrys embassy in London are limiting his contact with the outside world and censoring his speech.

His legal team in the matter, led by the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzn, revealed the suit at a news conference in Quito, where the lawsuit was filed. The action aims to prevent strict new rules governing Mr. Assanges visitors and online activity from taking effect.

The policies were laid out in a nine-page memo that was published by a news site this month. (They include directives to clean his bathroom and look after his cat.)

Mr. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has lived at the embassy since 2012, when he sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden in connection with rape accusations. That case was dropped last year, but he remained there, fearing prosecution in the United States over WikiLeakss publishing of leaked government documents.

In a statement, WikiLeaks asserted that pressure had mounted on Ecuador to hand over Mr. Assange to the British authorities, who could arrest him for skipping bail in 2012. Ecuador has a new president, Lenn Moreno, who is more open to engaging with the United States than his predecessor, the leftist Rafael Correa. Mr. Assanges supporters worry that this means his long stay at the embassy could come to an end.

The new memo called on Mr. Assange to avoid speech or activities that could be considered political or could damage relations between Ecuador and other countries. And it threatened to revoke his asylum if he did not comply with the terms.

The rules stated that he must seek permission to have visitors, and provide their social media profiles and the serial numbers of any electronic devices that they would bring with them. The memo specified that he should connect to the internet using only the embassys wireless network, and reiterated that the embassy was not responsible for any of his communications.

It also concerned some more personal matters, including cleaning his bathroom and caring for his cat, which he once told The New Yorker he called Michi, an Ecuadorean word for cat, or Cat-stro. (On Twitter, the animal is known as @EmbassyCat.) The memo threatened to send Michi to an animal shelter if Mr. Assange did not comply.

Noting budget cuts, the memo said that starting in December, it could no longer pay for Mr. Assanges daily expenses, including food, medical care and laundry.

Mr. Assange, 47, was born in Australia. Ecuador gave him citizenship in January, but some Ecuadorean lawmakers have called for it to be rescinded. WikiLeaks claimed on Twitter on Thursday that the push against him was a result of American pressure, because the Ecuadorean Constitution forbids extradition.

Efforts to reach Mr. Garzn on Friday were not successful.

Ecuadors foreign minister, Jos Valencia, said that of course we are going to respond in an appropriate manner.

We have the complete backing of the judiciary on this case since the protocols were adopted in accordance with international standards and the Ecuadorean law, he said in a statement. The protocols refer to how Assange is treated.

The embassy has suspended Mr. Assanges internet access several times, citing similar concerns about Ecuadors relations with other countries. The most recent suspension began in March, after he criticized Western countries for expelling Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. Some of his supporters also speculated that Ecuador was reacting to Mr. Assanges criticism of the Spanish government over the arrests of Catalan separatists.

In a statement posted online, WikiLeaks also said that the embassy had refused to allow the general counsel of Human Rights Watch, Dinah PoKempner, to visit Mr. Assange.

After that episode, Ms. PoKempner wrote that Mr. Assanges asylum is growing more difficult to distinguish from detention, and she called on Britain to reject extraditing Mr. Assange to the United States.

In a sign of the closer ties between the United States and Ecuador, Mr. Moreno hosted Vice President Mike Pence in June. Democratic senators urged Mr. Pence to press Mr. Moreno on Mr. Assange, saying that WikiLeaks continues its efforts to undermine democratic processes globally. The two did reportedly discuss the case.

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Julian Assange Says Hes Suing Ecuador for Violating His ...

Updated October 20, 2018 15:18:23

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a lawsuit in Ecuador against new terms of asylum in the Andean country's London embassy that require him to pay for medical bills and phone calls and clean up after his pet cat, his lawyer says.

Ecuador this month created the new protocol governing the Australian's stay at the embassy.

Lawyer Baltasar Garzon told a press conference in Ecuador's capital Quito that the rules were drawn up without consulting Mr Assange, who is now suing Foreign Minister Jose Valencia in a Quito court to have them changed.

Mr Assange has not had access to the internet since it was cut off in March, Mr Garzon added, despite a WikiLeaks statement this week that it had been restored.

"He has been held in inhuman conditions for more than six years," Mr Garzon said.

"Even people who are imprisoned have phone calls paid for by the state," he added, describing the obligations regarding the cat as "denigrating."

Mr Garzon said Mr Valencia was named in the lawsuit because he served as the intermediary between Mr Assange and the Ecuadorean Government.

Mr Valencia said the Government would respond "in an appropriate manner". "The protocol is in line with international standards and Ecuadorean law," he told reporters.

Mr Assange's stay has become an increasing annoyance for Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, who has said Mr Assange cannot stay inside the embassy for ever, but has been reluctant to kick him out of the embassy because of concerns about his human rights.

Mr Assange believes he will be handed over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents if he leaves.

In 2012, former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa granted Mr Assange asylum as he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden for interrogation on alleged sexual assault crimes.

Sweden later dropped its investigation, but Britain says he will be arrested for violating the terms of his bail if he leaves the embassy.

In 2017 Ecuador gave Mr Assange citizenship and named him to a diplomatic post in Russia, but rescinded the latter after Britain refused to give him diplomatic immunity, according to an Ecuadorean Government document seen by Reuters.

Reuters

Topics:law-crime-and-justice,courts-and-trials,internet-technology,government-and-politics,world-politics,hacking,ecuador,united-kingdom

First posted October 20, 2018 10:35:01

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Julian Assange sues over 'inhuman' conditions, 'denigrating ...

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will launch legal action against the government of Ecuador, is has been announced.

The Australian has been living inside the country's embassy in London for more than six years.

WikiLeaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon has arrived in Ecuador to launch the case, which is set to be heard in a domestic court next week.

WikiLeaks said Ecuador had threatened to remove the protection Mr Assange has had since being granted political asylum, and added that his access to the outside world had been "summarily cut off."

In July, Ecuador's president Lenn Moreno said the whistleblower must leave the embassy eventually.

Earlier this week, he was handed a set of house rules including better looking after his cat and cleaning his bathroom.

WikiLeaks said the government of Ecuador refused a visit by Human Rights Watch general counsel Dinah PoKempner, who has likened Ecuador's isolation to "solitary confinement", and had not allowed several meetings with his lawyers.

A statement said: "Ecuador's measures against Julian Assange have been widely condemned by the human rights community."

Mr Assange's lawyers said they were also challenging the legality of the Ecuador government's "special protocol", revealed earlier this week, which makes his political asylum contingent on "censoring" his freedom of opinion, speech and association.

The protocol also requires journalists, his lawyers and anyone else seeking to see Julian Assange to disclose private or political details, such as their social media usernames, the serial numbers and codes of their phones and tablets, with Ecuador - which the protocol says the government may "share with other agencies".

The protocol claims the Embassy may seize the property of Mr Assange or his visitors and, without a warrant, hand it over to UK authorities, said the statement.

Despite the rape allegation against Assange being dropped, he has refused to leave the embassy while a separate UK arrest warrant for breaching his bail conditions remains in effect.

He lost a bid to have the bail offence thrown out earlier this year by a judge who described Assange as feeling "he is above the law".

The WikiLeaks founder says he fears extradition to the United States for questioning over the activities of the website if he leaves the building in leafy Knightsbridge.

WikiLeaks caused an international storm in 2010 when it published a series of leaks from US soldier Chelsea Manning.

The leaks enraged Washington and included thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that were highly critical of world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's royal family.

He was seen as a cyber-hero by some for exposing government abuses of power and championing free speech, but to others he was viewed as a criminal who undermined the security of the West by exposing secrets.

He has recently been accused of speaking to Russian hackers trying to block the election of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election.

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to sue Ecuador for ...

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has been hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the past six years, has been given a new set of house rules if he wants to continue his stay. In a memo first published on Ecuadorian website Cdigo Vidrio and obtained by The Guardian, conditions for his stay were contingent on his ability to stay out of activity considered as political or interfering with the internal affairs of other states. It also outlines basic housekeeping rules, like cleaning his own bathroom and taking care of his pet cat.

Not much is known about where this cat came from; it was reported in his New Yorker profile that the story about the cat being a gift from his children was a lie. All we know is that Assange likes to dress the cat up in neckties and he has given the cat its own Twitter and Instagram accounts. However, in a tragic twist, he hasnt been able to update them since his internet was taken away in March for violating his agreement with Ecuador not to meddle in other countries affairs.

The document also states that the Ecuadorian Embassy would not pay for his food, laundry, or any part of his stay starting in December. If he fails to take care of the cats well-being, food and hygiene, itll be taken away and given to someone else. The memo states that Assanges internet ban is being lifted partially now, and hell be able to start using his own phone and computer with access to the embassys Wi-Fi. But if this brings about any more political interference and he pisses off the Ecuadorian government again, it could lead to the termination of the diplomatic asylum.

The cats name is Michi (Ecuadorian for cat), but it usually just goes by the nickname EmbassyCat. The cat is a central part of PR for Assange, who uses it for everything from garnering sympathy to slapping its face across WikiLeaks merch. Below is an EmbassyCat-branded mousepad sold on the WikiLeaks shop that reads, I live in the Ecuadorian embassy with Julian Assange : Interested in counter-purrveilance.

Assange has not been able to read the memo as of Monday, as it hadnt been translated from Spanish, and he did not yet have access to the internet. However, well probably know when hes back online when he decides to update the petstagrams.

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Julian Assange needs to take care of his cat, or itll be ...

Updated October 16, 2018 19:43:27

Ecuador has ordered Julian Assange to stick to a new set of house rules, including avoiding contentious political issues, cleaning his bathroom and looking after his cat if he wants the internet reconnected.

In a nine-page memo, published by Ecuadorean website Codigo Vidrio, the WikiLeaks founder is prohibited from "interfering in the internal affairs of other states" or from activities "that could prejudice Ecuador's good relations with other states".

Mr Assange, who was granted asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012, was also told in the memo his pet cat would be confiscated and taken to an animal shelter if he did not look after it.

On Sunday, WikiLeaks said Mr Assange would be reconnected to the internet, but it was not clear whether the move was contingent on him agreeing to Ecuador's conditions.

The memo mostly governs security and communication issues, but offers hints of other Assange issues at the embassy, such as the need for him to clean his bathroom.

Tension has long been building between Mr Assange and his hosts, particularly after the Australian ex-hacker began cheering on Catalonian secessionists in Spain last year.

In March, Ecuador announced it was restricting Mr Assange's access to the internet.

Mr Assange took refuge at the Ecuadorean Embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sex crimes allegations.

AP

Topics:world-politics,information-technology,internet-technology,law-crime-and-justice,hacking,united-kingdom,ecuador

First posted October 16, 2018 16:37:01

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Julian Assange ordered by Ecuador to curb speech, clean ...

Ecuador has partly restored Julian Assanges communications with the outside world from its London embassy where the WikiLeaks founder has been living for over six years, according to reports.

The Ecuadorian government suspended access in March because it said Assange had breached a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states.

On Sunday, the Press Association reported that Ecuador had partly restored Assanges access to the internet, mobile phones and visits at the embassy, which had been restricted to members of his legal team.

The WikiLeaks founder has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 2012 when he took refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sex crimes, which he denies, and was granted political asylum.

Sweden dropped the case against Assange last year but he remains subject to arrest in the UK for jumping bail. He has said he fears he could be extradited to the US for questioning about the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves the building.

WikiLeaks said in a statement: Ecuador has told WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it will remove the isolation regime imposed on him following meetings between two senior UN officials and Ecuadors president, Lenin Moreno, on Friday.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, added: It is positive that through UN intervention Ecuador has partly ended the isolation of Mr Assange although it is of grave concern that his freedom to express his opinions is still limited.

The UN has already declared Mr Assange a victim of arbitrary detention. This unacceptable situation must end. The UK government must abide by the UNs ruling and guarantee that he can leave the Ecuadorian embassy without the threat of extradition to the United States.

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Ecuador restores internet access to Julian Assange in embassy base ...