WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) Ecuador's decision to terminate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's political asylum will likely improve the relationship between Washington and Quito, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said in a press release on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, UK police arrested Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London upon the US extradition request. The US Justice Department charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to a 2010 release of classified US documents.
"I thank Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno for taking this crucial step. Former President Rafael Correa's initial decision to grant Mr. Assange safe harbor created this irritant in our relationship with Ecuador. I look forward to working closely with President Moreno to further deepen US-Ecuador relations," Engel said in the release.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik news agency and RT broadcaster, linked Assange's arrest with the upcoming visit of Moreno to the United States.
"The Ecuadorian president, who turned Assange in, is going to the United States on April 16. What's the exchange rate for 30 pieces of silver these days?" Simonyan wrote in her Telegram blog.
Since 2012, Assange had been residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced a probe over allegations of sexual offenses. Assange denied those allegations and called them politically motivated. While Swedish police dropped the investigation in 2017, Assange has said he remained wary of being extradited to the United States.
