Concern for ‘prisoner’ Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has fewer rights than a prisoner as he remains inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after almost seven years, according to the editor of the anti-secrecy publisher.

The charge was made after an American journalist said she was locked in a cold, surveilled room inside the embassy for more than an hour as she tried to meet Mr Assange.

Cassandra Fairbanks said he was barred from entering the room where he was supposed to meet her for a pre-arranged meeting because he refused to submit to a full body search 0 Julian Assange has spent seven years in the embassy

and continuous surveillance. The journalist said it was the third time she had visited the embassy in the past year, saying each time the atmosphere seemed “progressively worse”.

Wikileaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said: “The treatment of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy is unacceptable.

“It is despicable that a nation’s government turns against a man it has granted a diplomatic asylum in such a way that he has less rights than a prisoner.”

Thursday marks a year since the Ecuadorian government cut Mr Assange’s communications with the outside world and limited visitors to the embassy to meet with him.

The Wikileaks founder has been holed up in the embassy since 2012, when he sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape charges, and extradition to the United States over Wikileaks.