Jammers installed to stop Assange going online

Electric jammers have been placed inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to prevent Wikileaks founder Julian Assange having access to the internet or social media, sources have said.

The Ecuadorian government took the measure on Tuesday evening, stopping Mr Assange from tweeting, using the internet or phone.

He has also been refused any visitors to the embassy, where he has been living since June 2012, believing he will be extradited to the United States for questioning over the activities of Wikileaks if he leaves.

The measures follow the publication of an article in the Ecuadorian press concerning Mr Assange’s tweets about the arrest of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in Germany earlier this week.

In a phone call to Mr Assange’s lawyer on Tuesday, an adviser to Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the Wikileaks founder must stop tweeting about the Catalan issue. He was also asked to erase a tweet about the issue, which he did not erase.

His lawyer was told that a decision had been taken to isolate Mr Assange by preventing him from communicating with the outside world, “by order of the president”, sources said.