Previous Story
Ecuador delivers information to the IACHR requesting precautionary measures to Assange
Posted On 13 Feb 2019
Ecuadornews:
The Attorney General of Ecuador delivered to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the requested information on the request for precautionary measures by the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who has been detained since 2012 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
This was stated on Tuesday by Foreign Minister José Valencia in an interview with Efe in which he assured that the response was sent “within the period established by the Inter-American Commission itself.”
The precautionary measures were requested after the Ecuadorian Justice considered twice the “Special Protocol of Visits, Communications and Medical Care to Julian Assange” in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which, according to the Ecuadorian authorities, guarantees both their rights as the fulfillment of his obligations as asylee.
The request for precautionary measures by the defense of Assange “is based on the existence of a potential risk” for the founder of WikiLeaks, according to the Foreign Ministry.
And he asked the Ecuadorian State to conclude his situation of isolation in the Embassy of London, as well as guaranteeing his privacy and that of his lawyers and preventing his surrender “to any country that does not give guarantees of non-extradition to the United States.”
“We hope and trust that the decision of the Court will follow the lines of the decision that Ecuadorian courts have already taken,” Valencia said in the interview at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in Quito.
After the delivery of the Attorney General’s letter, the IACHR must decide on the matter and Valencia trusted that it recognizes that Ecuador “has followed international law” in this case.
The head of Ecuadorian diplomacy believes that “there is nothing to complain to Ecuador” about the treatment of Assange, but on the contrary, “there should be recognition for this action” that “will continue to adhere to international law.”
He reiterated that Assange also “has to comply with the obligations that, in accordance with that same international law, must meet while inside the diplomatic mission.”
Valencia indicated that, within what is established in the special protocol of coexistence, the founder of WikiLeaks has undergone medical examinations, whose results are unknown due to confidentiality.
In October of last year, the naturalized Ecuadorian sued Ecuador for a supposed violation of rights for forcing him to comply with a protocol of coexistence within the embassy.
Assange has been in that Ecuadorian headquarters since 2012, when he was required by the Swedish authorities due to the accusations of two rape women, which he denied, a case that was shelved due to the impossibility of advancing the investigation.
Even so, he remains under asylum for fear that if he leaves, he will be deported to the United States, where he presumes he could be tried for the publication of confidential military and diplomatic documents. (I)
