Julian Assange Says He's Suing Ecuador for 'Violating His Fundamental Rights'
Julian Assange announced on Friday that he was suing the Ecuadorean government for "violating his fundamental rights," claiming that his longtime hosts at the country's embassy in London are limiting his contact with the outside world and censoring his speech.
His legal team in the matter, led by the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, revealed the suit at a news conference in Quito, where the lawsuit was filed. The action aims to prevent strict new rules governing Mr. Assange's visitors and online activity from taking effect.
The policies were laid out in a nine-page memo that was published by a news site this month. (They include directives to clean his bathroom and look after his cat.)
Clean up your room and brush your teeth before you go to bed.
Also at Reuters, CNN, and USA Today.
Previously: Julian Assange has His Internet Access Cut Off by Ecuador
Ecuador Spent $5 Million Protecting and Spying on Julian Assange
Ecuador Reportedly Almost Ready to Hand Julian Assange Over to UK Authorities
Associated Press Publishes Supposedly Leaked WikiLeaks Documents
The Guardian: Russian Diplomats Planned to Sneak Julian Assange Out of the UK
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday October 21 2018, @07:02PM (1 child)
All things considered, I think we (SN) have been pretty fair to Assange. Want to be more specific?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday October 22 2018, @04:13AM
I offer the links in the summary under "Previously" as well as the commentary in the summary itself as evidence. The articles against him are light on facts and heavy on casting aspersions. The link about Ecuador spending $5 million on him stands out. It is all about perspective. The UK has been spending around £10.4k per day on his siege, which could be ended by their word not to extradite him to the US. Since the siege has been going since 2012, the sum is probably going well over £40M (about €46M or $52M USD) by now [smh.com.au]. It is also notable that the Australian government refuses to defend him, a citizen [sydneycriminallawyers.com.au]. Even the reasons for the Swedish prosecution have not been covered well. The women involved state that the case was trumped up by the police. The original investigator dropped the case, and a new investigator only picked up the case and strangely issued an Interpol red alert after Assange had requested permission to leave the country, got it, and left. Then, in violation of their standard practice, the Swedish prosecution consistently refused to interview him either on-site or via phone, dodging questions about it for years.
If there were reasons to criticize him, then that would be a different matter but there aren't. However, that has not stopped politicians and fellow journalists from making insinuations. Anyway, all those insinuations are working well as distractions from the material that Wikileaks has been publishing over the years. The attacks on the messenger and the resulting noise have successfully drowned out the anti-war / anti-corruption message.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.