Julian Assange was rude, unhygienic and threatened Ecuador's president before his asylum was withdrawn
The decision by Ecuador to allow the UK authorities to arrest Wikileaks founder Julian Assange inside its London embassy on April 11 came after a disastrous few months in which the relationship between the government and Assange became severely strained.
Following Assange's arrest, the country's foreign minister, José Valencia, stated nine reasons for his asylum being withdrawn in a presentation that took place in the country's parliament on Thursday. The list ranged from the impact on Ecuador's relationship with other countries being jeopardized to being tired of having to "put up with his rudeness" for almost seven years.
Valencia said the country was not left with any other choice than to end the WikiLeaks founder's stay at its embassy in London after his "innumerable acts of interference in the politics of other states" which were putting the country's relations at risk.
The second point that he focused on was Assange's behavior, which he said involves the founder riding a skateboard and playing football inside the small embassy building. Assange also allegedly threatened staff at the embassy and got into fistfights with security workers.
Valencia said that the Wikileaks founder and his lawyers had made "insulting threats" against Ecuador and also accused its officials of being pressured by many other countries. Assange allegedly had "permanently accused [embassy] staff of spying on and filming him" on behalf of the US and that, instead of thanking the government for almost seven years of asylum, he and his entourage started "an avalanche of criticisms" against the Quito government.
The irate minister also referred to Assange's "hygienic" problems saying it was "very unpleasant" and "attributed to a digestive problem", Indy100 reported. The minister said that Assange's deteriorating health, however, was also a major concern because he couldn't be properly treated in the embassy building. Valencia also added that the UK was not going to consider granting Assange safe conduct which meant that Ecuador was facing the prospect of Assange staying "indefinitely in the diplomatic headquarters".
The final reason is that there were "multiple inconsistencies" in how the founder was granted Ecuadorian citizenship, Valencia said. He added that Assange's stay has been costly. So far, the country has spent more than $5.8million on Assange's security between 2012 and 2018. He added that almost $400,000 of that had been on medical costs, food, and laundry.
Lenin Moreno, Ecuador's president, had made it quite clear from the beginning that he wanted to get Assange out of the embassy in Knightsbridge, west London, where he had been living since June 2012. Moreno had also described Assange as a "hacker", an "inherited problem", and a "stone in the shoe".
In a video address that he gave on April 11, Moreno accused the Wikileaks founder of violating the "generous" asylum conditions that were offered by his country and for meddling in the internal affairs of other countries. He also claimed that Assange had installed forbidden electronic equipment inside the embassy, had mistreated the guards and even "accessed the security files of our embassy without permission".
The final straw for the man came "two days ago" when Moreno suggested that Wikileaks had directly "threatened the government of Ecuador". On April 9, Assange's legal team gave a press conference where they accused the Ecuadorian government of illegally spying on Assange.
Wikileaks claimed in a tweet last week that Moreno had said he would make a decision on Assange's fate "in short term" after it had reported on an "offshore corruption scandal wracking his government". The scandal, which is known in Ecuador as the Ina Papers, alleged that the president is corrupted and that he has been benefiting from an offshore account in Panama. Moreno has denied any wrongdoing in the scandal.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that Assange smeared poop over the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London before he was unceremoniously dragged away from his hideout of seven years. The new information was revealed by Ecuador’s Interior Minister after Assange was arrested by British police officers on April 11.