The News
Sunday 22 of December 2024

Ecuador 'Temporarily Restricted' Assange's Internet


The decision to limit Julian Assange's internet activities add a mysterious event to an already extraordinary campaign,photo: AP/Alastair Grant
The decision to limit Julian Assange's internet activities add a mysterious event to an already extraordinary campaign,photo: AP/Alastair Grant
The foreign ministry of Ecuador stated it does not want to interfere in foreign elections

LONDON — Ecuador’s government has acknowledged that it has “temporarily restricted” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s internet access at its embassy in London after the whistleblowing site published documents from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The Ecuadorian foreign ministry in a statement Tuesday said that while it stands by its decision in 2012 to grant Assange asylum, it doesn’t interfere in foreign elections. Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa’s government said it was acting on its own and not ceding to foreign pressures.

The foreign ministry didn’t specify the extent of the restrictions on Assange’s access to the internet, saying only that the restrictions on his communications wouldn’t affect WikiLeaks’ ability to carry out its journalistic activities.

JOSHUA GOODMAN
RAPHAEL SATTER