The Government of Ecuador confirmed Tuesday it had cut off the internet access of Julian Assange due to US election leaks.
The Government of Ecuador confirmed Tuesday it had cut the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently housed at its embassy in London, due to leaks of its Organization. The Ecuadorian Government believes that the information leaked by Wikileaks could have a serious impact on the US Presidential election.
“The government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” states the Ecuadoran foreign ministry.
WikiLeaks has recently published an embarrassing collection of emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. According to the US Government, the emails were alleged hacked by a Russian nation-state actor in the attempt of interfering with the Presidential election.
According to the Ecuadoran foreign ministry, this is only a temporary measure.
According to WikiLeaks, the Ecuador cut off Assange’s internet communications at the behest of US Secretary of State John Kerry, but the US Government denied the allegation.
“While our concerns about WikiLeaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down WikiLeaks is false,” explained the State Department spokesman John Kirby.
“Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period.”
On the other side, the Ecuador Government denied the claim confirming the decision to temporarily suspend the internet access to Assange to avoid interference with the US election. The Government also reaffirmed its decision to grant asylum to the Wikileaks founder.
“Ecuador’s foreign policy responds to sovereign decisions alone and does not yield to pressure from other states,” it said.
“This temporary restriction does not prevent the WikiLeaks organization from carrying out its journalistic activities,”
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(Security Affairs – Assange, Ecuador Government)
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