MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Supporters of Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, will start a solidarity campaign near the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Sunday, August 16, the day marking three years since Ecuador decided to grant political asylum to the whistleblower.
Supporters of the decision from the Wise Up Action group will gather outside the Embassy of Ecuador at 4 p.m local time [18:00 GMT].
"Join supporters in a show of solidarity with Julian and Ecuador outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London to say ‘Thank you Ecuador!" the group said on its website
The United Kingdom refuses to recognize Assange's political asylum, posting a constant deployment of law enforcement around the embassy.
"It is also worth recalling the intimidation that Ecuador faced from the UK government, backed by London’s Metropolitan Police, at the time and how this continues to this day," the campaigners said.
Assange initially sought refuge in the embassy in response to moves by UK authorities to extradite him to Sweden, where he stands accused of sexual assault and rape. Assange firmly denies the allegations, claiming that they are a pretext to eventually extradite him from Sweden to the United States where he could be tried for publishing classified US documents through WikiLeaks.
Assange launched the WikiLeaks website in 2006. Since then, the platform has released millions of classified diplomatic documents from around the world on numerous espionage practices, war crimes, torture and many other human rights violations
