Ecuador revealed how much it had cost him asylum granted to Juan Assange at the London Embassy

The Embbady of Ecuador in London spent US $ 144,000 in public relations related to asylum, which it granted to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the controller of the country discovered during an audit. USD 332,000 was also spent for legal advice in 2012 and 2013 and USD 105,000 for Assange during his seven-year stay, according to the report signed by External Auditor Sonia Sierra.

The government of President Lenin Moreno expelled Assange from the embbady in April. He is currently in a United Kingdom prison and is facing an extradition request from the United States, which charges him with 18 counts of endangering security. conspiring to obtain and divulge clbadified information. Part of the public relations spending of the embbady went to MCSquared, who represented the government of Rafael Correa, in a campaign against the Chevron oil company.

Following the request for extradition submitted by the United States, Assange was arrested on April 11 at the Embbady of Ecuador, where he had been a refugee since 2012, partly to escape US justice after the release of half a million confidential documents on US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan and 250 cables from the US. Department of State. "From now on, we will be very careful to give asylum, when it is time to do so, to people who really deserve it and not to a miserable hacker whose sole purpose is to destabilize governments." said the Ecuadorian president.

"You can not go to a house that greets you with affection, gives you food, takes care of you and starts to denounce the owner whose behavior has been disrespectful," said Moreno. "We have removed the asylum from this abyss and, advantageously, we have released a stone in the shoe". "Their behavior has been disrespectful, or even, companions, they know, this man, with his excrement, has stained the walls of the Embbady, ​​House of Ecuadorians, Ecuadorian territory in London," said Moreno , adding that "The patience of Ecuador has its limits".

In early May, a British court sentenced him to 50 weeks in prison for violating the conditions of his probation. Sweden reactivated the charges against him for an alleged violation in 2010. If he was extradited to the United States, "he would be exposed to a real risk of serious violations of their human rights, including their freedom of life." And the right to a fair trial, "he said. Nils Melzer, UN Independent Expert and Professor of International Lawwho says he is "particularly alarmed" by the new charges. "It could result in a prison sentence or even the death penalty, if further charges are added in the future," he said.