Ecuador suspends Julian Assange’s outside communication

By Sergio Garcia Hernandez

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Ecuador said Wednesday it has suspended outside communications for Julian Assange at its London embassy after he published message critical of the British government.

The South American nation said the measure was taken because the Wikileaks founder breached a agreement Assange made with its government in 2017 to not publish any messages that could be construed as meddling in the affairs of another state.

“Assange´s behavior with his social media messages puts at risk the good relation that the country has with the United Kingdom, with other European Union member states and with all other nations in general”, Ecuador’s government said in a statement and warned Assange it could take additional measures.

Assange used social media on Monday to criticize the U.K. government's decision to expel Russian diplomats after London accused Moscow of involvement in the poisoning Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy residing in the U.K., and his daughter.

He did not help his case when he responded to a British foreign official who referred to Assange as a “miserable little worm”, after his tweets.

“As a political prisoner detained without charge for 8 years, in violation of 2 UN rulings, I suppose I must be "miserable"; yet nothing wrong with being a "little" person although I'm rather tall; and better a "worm", a healthy creature that invigorates the soil, than a snake,” Assange said in response to Sir Alan Duncan.

The Australian computer programmer has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 in an effort to avoid extraditing to Sweden. From there he could be sent to the United States, where he is wanted for leaking secret government and military information.

Swedish prosecutors has been investigating Assange because of rape allegations by two women, and British authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for what they said was jumping bail.

But authorities in Sweden dropped the case last May, prompting Assange´s lawyers to declare his British arrest warrant has lost its function and purpose.

A British judge last month rejected his appeal on those grounds.

* Ahmed Fawzi Mostefai in Bogota and Ahmet Gurhan Kartal in London contributed to this report.​