‘I’m an assassination risk’: Assange to Ecuador court in leaked testimony

Ecuador will be violating its own constitution if it expels Julian Assange from its London embassy while fully aware of a possible “assassination” plot against him, WikiLeaks suggested, releasing the journalist’s court testimony.

Article 79 of the Ecuadorean constitution guarantees that “in no case shall the extradition of an Ecuadorean be granted,” Assange told the Ecuadorean court back on October 29, when he requested the restoration of his communication privileges.

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A transcript of Assange’s statement was released by WikiLeaks after news of his imminent expulsion from the embassy made the headlines on Thursday. While a great deal of Assange’s testimony defends his right to stay in the embassy after being granted asylum and, subsequently, citizenship, the 47-year-old also accused the government of Lenin Moreno of illegally limiting his communication rights and bowing to pressure from the US, which seeks his extradition for revealing some of Washington’s dirty secrets.

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“The fact that a government controls a particular piece of space does not mean it can violate its Constitution, can violate UN-mandated rights, that it can engage in punishment without process,” Assange told the court, revealing that, besides threats of unjust prosecution, he also faces direct threats against his life.

TRANSCRIPT Oct 29, 2018

Julian Aassange: Thank you, Judge Martinez, for conducting this hearing and for the State of Ecuador for spending the effort to uphold the rule of law in this matter.  find this e!perience somewhat difficult and  hope you will forgi"e me not #ust for my terri$le Spanish $ut for the difficulties that  ha"e.  ha"e $een in this em$assy without sunlight for si! years and essentially isolated from most people for se"en months and, including electronic communication, the telephone etc, from my young children. That%s $een a difficult e!perience and it has also interfered with my a$ility to work, to make a li"ing, and with my deeply held principles that  ha"e fought for all my life, which is to uphold the right of freedom of e!pression, the right for people to know, the right of the freedom of the press and the right for e"eryone to participate in their society and the $roader society.  want to go $ack for a moment so people can understand how this process came to $e. &nfortunately, due to my isolation,  ha"e not $een a$le to participate in the de$ates occurring around me and that has resulted in a climate of li$els and fake news that might $e e!pected for someone who has $een in the $usiness of e!posing "ery large and "ery powerful corrupt organisations or organisations that a$use human rights. t is a sadness to me to see information denigrating to my character not only spread $y the "arious organisations that  ha"e e!posed $ut, in this hearing, $y some mem$ers of the Ecuadorian 'o"ernment. Although  want to say that  was "ery proud to $ecome an Ecuadorian citizen.  think Ecuador is an amazing State, with amazing people who ha"e supported me in go"ernment, e"en in the current go"ernment, in the population and the press, and so  find it additionally saddening to( )interruption in Spanish* JA: +k.  find it saddening to see that in this case there%s some attempt to, well, to not engage in the legal process $ut rather to engage in a political process, in an attempt to denigrate my character to makeheadlines, to not treat this process with the serious respect that it deser"es. %"e $een in"ol"ed in freedom of e!pression and pu$lishing in Australia for many, many years  my $ooks are translated into - languages. %"e written a $ook all a$out &S diplomacy. %"e pro$a$ly read.