(Newswire.net — February 12, 2017) — If Ecuadorian opposition leader wins the country’s presidential elections next week, he would give Julius Assange 30 days to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the Guardian reports.
According to the newspaper, Guillermo Lasso, the right-wing Creo-Suma party leader, stressed “the Ecuadorian people have been paying a cost that we should not have to bear,” referring to sheltering the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief in country’s embassy in London.
Guillermo told Guardian he “will cordially ask Señor Assange to leave” within 30 days of assuming office, should he be elected.
According to experts, Lasso is actually sending the message to the U.S., hoping to gain support that helps him seize power. If he becomes the next President of Ecuador, he will revoke the asylum for WikiLeaks founder, basically delivering him on a ‘silver plate’ to the British police who would deport him directly to Sweden over rape allegations.
In order to evade extradition to Sweden, Assange who lived in London, applied for political asylum in June 2012 and he hasn’t left the Embassy of Ecuador ever since.
The WikiLeaks founder firmly denied the allegations claiming that it is a weak attempt to present him in public as a plain criminal.
Assange, however, provided all the help to resolve the case from his room at the Ecuadorian Embassy including meeting with Swedish authorities. In November, last year, he met with the Swedish prosecutors in order to demonstrate his willingness to cooperate.
Assange expressed his fear that Sweden would immediately extradite him to United States, where he is likely to face life imprisonment or the death sentence for his activities as the head of WikiLeaks, the whistleblower web portal which continued publishing sensitive materials after Assange was charged.
If elected, presidential nominee, Guillermo Lasso, promised 30 days’ notice for eviction, but this gracious act makes no difference for Assange who is unable to avoid being arrested due to being on around the clock perimeter lockdown by the British police and security forces surrounding the embassy.
In February 2016, RT calculated the operation had cost the British taxpayers almost £14 million (US$17.5 million).