Ecuador seizes Julian Assange’s possessions after U.S. request
LONDON — Ecuador began a process on Monday to seize possessions left at its London embassy by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, following a request by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry said prosecutors and police had started to identify and seize any of Assange’s belongings that could serve as evidence in a U.S. investigation into the alleged release of classified material by WikiLeaks.
The seized possessions will be sent to Ecuador to be analyzed, Quito said.
If Ecuadorian prosecutors conclude that some of them should be passed to Washington, this will be done according to legal norms. Any remaining possessions will be handed to Assange’s representatives, it said.
WikiLeaks had expressed concern earlier on Monday that Ecuador could allow U.S. officials to seize Assange’s possessions directly from the embassy.
Assange and his lawyers were not allowed to be present during the “illegal seizure” of items believed to include his manuscripts, legal papers, medical records and electronic equipment, the whistle-blowing website said.
“The seizure of his belongings violates laws that protect medical and legal confidentiality and press protections,” it said.
Assange, a 47-year-old Australian citizen, has been held at a London prison since British police dragged him from the embassy in London on April 11. He was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breach of bail conditions on May 1.
The U.S. government issued a warrant for his arrest and requested his extradition from Britain following his removal from the embassy building last month, when Quito ended his asylum.
Washington has accused Assange of conspiring with former U.S. military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak a trove of classified material in 2010.
Assange spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced rape and sexual assault accusations.
A Swedish prosecutor has reopened a preliminary rape investigation into Assange, and on Monday requested that a court order his detention in absentia on suspicion of rape.