Ecuador foreign minister to visit Assange Ecuador has stepped up pressure on Britain to grant safe passage to whistleblower Julian Assange. ECUADOR has stepped up pressure on Britain to grant safe passage to the internet whistleblower Julian Assange, sending its foreign minister to visit the fugitive holed up at the country's embassy in London. Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino plans to also hand over to British authorities a document demanding that Assange be granted safe passage out of the European country. Assange, founder of WikiLeaks that revealed tens of thousands of classified US cables, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 19, 2012, and has been granted asylum by Ecuador. Assange's partner in the online revelations was US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, whose military court martial is to begin on Monday at Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning had access to the documents as an intelligence analyst for the Army and has admitted to giving the documents to Assange. "It is time for me to visit (Assange) to tell him that he will continue to enjoy our protection and our support, because we defend personal integrity and the right to life," Patino told Ecuadorian public television. Britain has approved Assange's extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex abuse allegations. Assange fears that, if he is sent to Sweden, he could then be extradited to the United States in connection with the alleged theft of classified documents. In order to travel to Ecuador, Assange would have to cross British territory where he could be seized and extradited. Ecuador and Assange's defence team have argued that he should be questioned by Swedish investigators at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.