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Nothing Could Stop New Ecuadorian President From Ending Assange's Asylum

© REUTERS / Axel SchmidtJulian Assange, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks speaks via video link during a press conference on the occasion of the ten year anniversary celebration of WikiLeaks in Berlin, Germany, October 4, 2016.
Julian Assange, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks speaks via video link during a press conference on the occasion of the ten year anniversary celebration of WikiLeaks in Berlin, Germany, October 4, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Things appear to be taking a turn for the worse for Julian Assange as both Ecuadorian presidential candidates appear eager to evict him from Ecuador’s embassy in London.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in this December 5, 2011 file photo - Sputnik International
Assange Strikes Back: WikiLeaks Won’t Bow to Ecuador New President’s Pressure
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has stated that his company will not bow to Ecuadorian presidential candidate Lenin Moreno’s pressure. The comment came after Moreno said that Assange should stop posting online information that might influence politics in nations that are friendly to the South American state.

The politician added that if he won the upcoming elections, conditions would be put in place for Assange to keep his asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. In a tweet on Tuesday Assange hit back, declaring that – quote – "Wikileaks publishes from the EU, not Ecuador, and will not respond to pressure".

Andres Mejia Acosta, a professor of international politics at King’s College London, told Radio Sputnik that both Ecuadorian presidential candidates are unlikely to “feel any connection with the asylum” provided to Julian Assange by President Rafael Correa in 2012.

"The offer to host asylum in Ecuadorian embassy came in the midst of a stronger position of President Correa back in 2012, when he wanted to show and assert his strength to sovereignty, and strength and admission as a regional leader; and he was signaling a stronger position to the UK and to the US in terms of defending his sovereign rights to offer Julian Assange an asylum. That context is no longer in place. Rafael Correa is a significantly weaker leader in the region and inside his country. And the geopolitical situation that justified the asylum has significantly changed since then," he said.

Therefore, Acosta explained, it is very likely that the new Ecuadorian president will evict Julian Assange from the country’s embassy in London.

"On one hand, Assange himself has vowed to accept extradition procedures back to the US about two or three weeks ago, and that was directly related to the end of the Democratic administration and the coming of the Trump’s presidency. But in terms of Ecuadorian politics, the presence of Assange in the embassy has become a stumbling block in the US-UK relationship," the professor said.

Essentially, Assange’s asylum has frozen the diplomatic agenda between Ecuador and the UK, and his eviction may in fact help improve relations between the two countries, according to Acosta.

"Removing Assange from the embassy will not only clear up some much-needed physical space in the small Kensington flat, but it will clear a more important diplomatic agenda between the two countries," Acosta surmised.

He also added that there are virtually no obstacles to evicting Assange from the embassy, and while the WikiLeaks founder’s asylum became a sort of “issue of national sovereignty, of national pride” to President Rafael Correa, his potential successors have made no such commitments.

In 2012 Assange applied for political asylum in Ecuador to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for sexual crimes. He has been staying in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. Assange believes that the sex abuse allegations are only a pretext for his extradition to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges.

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