Ecuador negotiating exit strategy for Assange

Ecuador’s president said yesterday that his country and Britain were working on a legal solution for Julian Assange to allow the Wikileaks founder to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in ‘‘the medium term.’’

President Lenin Moreno told The Associated Press that Assange’s lawyers were aware of the negotiations. He declined to provide more details because of the sensitivity of the case.

Assange has been holed up in the embassy for more than six years. The famous whistleblower and computer engineer faces an arrest warrant in the UK for not making a bail payment and fears he could be extradited to the US, where high-level officials have spoken about prosecuting him for stealing classified information. Previous sexual assault charges filed against him in Sweden have been dropped.

Moreno said his country will work for Assange’s safety and the preservation of his human rights as it seeks a way for him to leave the embassy. ‘‘Being five or six years in an embassy already violates his human rights,’’ Moreno said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. ‘‘But his presence in the embassy is also a problem.’’

Ecuador’s previous leftleaning administration gave Assange asylum in 2012, saying it feared his life was in danger for publishing thousands of diplomatic cables.

But Assange’s relationship with the Ecuadorian government has soured since the centrist Moreno became president. Over the past two years Assange’s access to the internet was suspended on several occasions, as he continued to make controversial statements. –AP