Ecuadorian court revokes citizenship for Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder was given Ecuadorian citizenship in January 2018

Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in May 2017. AP

Ecuador has revoked the citizenship of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who is in a British prison.

Ecuador’s justice system formally notified the Australian that his naturalisation had been nullified in a letter that came in response to a claim filed by the South American country’s Foreign Ministry.

A naturalisation is considered damaging when it is granted based on the concealment of relevant facts, false documents or fraud.

Ecuadorian authorities say Assange’s naturalisation letter had inconsistencies, different signatures, the possible alteration of documents and unpaid fees, among other issues.

Carlos Poveda, Mr Assange’s lawyer, told AP that the decision was made without due process and Assange was not allowed to appear in the case.

“On the date he was cited he was deprived of his liberty and with a health crisis inside the deprivation of liberty centre where he was being held,” Mr Poveda said.

He said he would file appeals asking for a clarification of the decision.

“More than the importance of nationality, it is a matter of respecting rights and following due process in withdrawing nationality,” Mr Poveda said.

Mr Assange received Ecuadorian citizenship in January 2018 as part of a failed attempt by the government of then-president Lenin Moreno to turn him into a diplomat to get him out of its embassy in London.

On Monday, the Pichincha Court for Contentious Administrative Matters revoked this decision.

Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry told AP the court had “acted independently and followed due process in a case that took place during the previous government and that was raised by the same previous government".

Mr Assange, 50, has been in London’ high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail seven years earlier during a separate legal battle.

He spent seven years inside Ecuador’s London embassy, where he fled in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.

US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

US prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic memos and military files that WikiLeaks later published.

Lawyers for Assange say he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech protection for publishing documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This month, Britain’s High Court granted the US government permission to appeal against a decision that the WikiLeaks founder could not be sent to the US to face espionage charges.

In January, a lower court judge had refused an American request to send Assange to the US.