"On January 29, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has notified the State of Ecuador about a motion on protection measures which has been filed by the lawyers of Julian Assange. With regard to this, the commission has asked us to provide information concerning the situation in the embassy", the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
On 23 January, Assange’s lawyers said they had filed an urgent application to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) in order to compel the US authorities to disclose charges against the whistleblower.
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In the same statement, the defense team said it had asked the commission to compel Ecuador to cease its espionage activities against Assange, to stop the isolation imposed on him and to protect him from extradition to the United States.
Assange, who has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom, since 2012, has repeatedly said he feared extradition to the United States due to the fact that he had published thousands of leaked classified US authorities’ documents.
His defense team has cited media reports suggesting that Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno had sought to reach an agreement with the United States on handing Assange over to Washington in exchange for debt relief.
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The outlets then suggested that the existence of these files meant existing charges brought against Assange by the US authorities.
In October, the Ecuadorian authorities have introduced a protocol restricting Assange communications. The activist's defense team said the new home rules were a violation of Assange's rights.
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