The US government has made a verbal promise to Ecuador not to seek death penalty for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, ABC News broadcaster reported, citing a source in the Ecuadorian government
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2019) The US government has made a verbal promise to Ecuador not to seek death penalty for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, ABC news broadcaster reported, citing a source in the Ecuadorian government.
On April 11, Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after Quito withdrew political asylum granted to him. The WikiLeaks founder, who has become famous for leaking classified US government data, now faces the threat of extradition to the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and could get up to five years in jail.
According to the broadcaster, Ecuador initially reached out to the UK authorities in March last year, asking for written guarantees that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he might face death row.
Six months later, Ecuador ambassador in Germany Manuel Mejia Dalmau reportedly sought a meeting with US Ambassador in Berlin Richard Grenell, to discuss Assange.
Grenell contacted the US Justice department about potential reassurances and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein agreed to it, the outlet reported, citing a senior US official.
The broadcaster remarked that the State Department had declined to comment on the issue, while the Justice Department would not confirm that death penalty was out of question, stressing that the charges unsealed after Assange's arrest were not a capital offense.
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said last week that the United Kingdom had given written guarantees that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he might face death penalty or torture.
