Ecuador revokes Julian Assange citizenship

Ecuador has revoked WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s citizenship. According to a court in the capital Quito, irregularities have been found in his naturalization process. For example, several signatures would have been put and forgery would have been committed.

Assange’s lawyer, who is detained in Britain, has announced that he will appeal the decision. He asks for an explanation and wants the decision to be quashed.

Assange became an Ecuadorian citizen in 2018 after living for years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. In 2012, he sought refuge there because he was threatened with arrest in Sweden after allegations of sexual abuse. Assange wanted to avoid extradition to the US, where he would probably face a long prison sentence for espionage for his WikiLeaks revelations.

In 2019 Ecuador withdrew Assange’s asylum status, after which British police arrested him. He was sentenced to nearly a year in prison for violating the terms of his bail in the abuse case. Sweden dropped the case at the end of 2019, but Assange is still fighting a legal battle against extradition to the US.

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