This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was made an Ecuadorian citizen last month, the nation’s foreign ministry has revealed, in an attempt to resolve the political impasse over his continued presence in the UK. Sweden dropped their investigation over the 2010 allegations last year, but British police have said they are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms. He also is said to fear extradition to the United States, where the Trump administration’s Justice Department is weighing whether to charge him for his role in publishing the secret documents obtained from the Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, who was then known as Bradley Manning. But a standoff with British authorities continued, as the Foreign Office rejected an Ecuadoran request that it grant diplomatic status to Assange, insisting instead that the Australian national “leave the embassy to face justice.”

Ecuador’s foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, subsequently said that Assange would not leave the embassy in the absence of security guarantees.
It is revealed that Ecuador granted citizenship to Julian Assange. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012 and he has remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London avoiding extradition to Sweden on rape charges. Subsequently, Swedish authorities dropped the charges in May 2017.