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Paola Veintimilla asks the chancellor to clarify the situation of Julian Assange
Posted On 21 Sep 2018
Ecuadornews:
The Ecuadorian legislator Paola Veintimilla requested today the appearance to the National Assembly (Parliament) of the chancellor Jose Valencia, so that he explains the situation of the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, asiled from 2012 in the Embassy of Ecuador in London.
Veintimilla warned, in statements to Efe, of alleged anomalies with the asylum status of Assange and in the granting of Ecuadorian nationality to the Australian journalist.
“There are several irregularities in this process,” insisted the legislator who belongs to the conservative Christian Social Party and who justified the request to withdraw the Ecuadorian nationality to Assange.
Veintimilla indicated that his complaint is based on the alleged formulation of a protocol for the granting of Ecuadorian nationality, allegedly made to favor Assange, developed during the administration of former Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa, who now chairs the General Assembly of the United Nations.
“They created a protocol exclusively for him, because otherwise they could not” hand over the nationality to the Australian, said Veintimilla and warned, even, of alleged inconsistencies in the dates of the proceedings.
The assemblywoman said she had a document in which Assange, on December 4 of last year, thanked Ecuador for the granting of Ecuadorian nationality, although this right was only granted a few days later.
She also said that in that letter, Assange apparently renounces diplomatic asylum after having obtained Ecuadorian nationality.
“This is the explanation that the chancellor should give us” Valencia, Veintimilla remarked that today he submitted a letter to the International Affairs Committee of the Parliament, so that the appearance of the head of diplomacy is processed.
“We will have to know what the status is” of Assange, although if Ecuadorian nationality were eventually withdrawn, he could maintain his asylum status, she added.
The Social Christian group of the Assembly asks “that the nationality be withdrawn, under all the irregularities that were committed to give” that benefit to Assange, Veintimilla added.
The Australian activist was required since 2010 by the Swedish authorities due to the accusations of two women for alleged rape, which he denied, although Sweden closed the case by failing to advance the investigation.
Even so, he remains under asylum for fear of being arrested by the British authorities and deported to the United States, where he presumes he could be tried for the publication of confidential military and diplomatic documents. (I)
