As his isolation intensifies, WikiLeaks' Assange faces possible threat of eviction, extradition

[DonViejo]

As his isolation intensifies, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces possible threat of eviction, extradition

As his residency at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London enters its seventh year, the self-styled cyber revolutionary – WikiLeaks’ founder and controversial publisher of some of the world’s most closely guarded official secrets – is facing a pair of converging crises that have left his allies fearing for his wellbeing and his safety.

Inside the embassy, he is living an increasingly secluded existence, having been stripped of his phones, computers and visitor privileges after running afoul of the very government that gave him asylum. Outside the embassy, he is embroiled in the global political scandal surrounding Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, with questions about his role in that drama being raised by friends and foes alike.

In more ways than one, the very walls protecting Assange also appear to be closing in.

“Life goes on outside the embassy,” journalist Vaughan Smith, one of Assange’s staunchest supporters and perhaps the last friend to visit him, told ABC News. “But life doesn’t go on inside.”

In a series of interviews with his lawyers, supporters and friends, the people closest to Assange painted a bleak picture of his present and a grim outlook on his future, telling ABC News that he may both long for and dread the day he is forced out of the embassy.

"He's been effectively in solitary confinement," said Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson. “Julian has always said he's very happy to face British justice but not at the expense of having to face American injustice.”

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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/isolation-intensifies-wikileaks-julian-assange-faces-threat-eviction/story?id=57475632

[yardwork]

1. Face the charges, Julian.

[DetlefK]

3. There are no charges against him. That's his biggest problem.

The sex-assault charges in Sweden were dropped years ago.

There currently are no charges filed against Julian Assange. And yet he still demands that Britain create preemptively an exception in the Britain-US extradition-treaty, just for him and just in case that the US will decide to file charges against him one day.



According to his fans, he's simultaneously in asylum and a prisoner.
Simultaneously on ecuadorean territory and in the UK.

[mythology]

4. Rapists shouldn't be able to escape justice by running away

[Mr. Ected]

2. Same trick Trump uses

Justice applied to a traitor is injustice in the eyes of the guilty.

Assange doesn't have home field advantage here, though, unlike Trump.