Wikileaks revealed yesterday that its founder Juliane Assange’s internet access was blocked by “a state party,” but it didn’t go into more details about why the man who has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London for a couple of years now was unable to access the internet all of a sudden. Ecuador itself released a statement today confirming that it had disconnected Assange’s internet over Clinton email leaks.
In case you’re unaware, Wikileaks has been publishing supposedly leaked emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager. The Ecuadorian government feels that this might have an impact on the upcoming U.S. presidential election which is why it has decided to cut Assange’s internet access.
In a statement issued to the press, the government of Ecuador says that it “respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states,” and that it simply exercised its sovereign right “to temporarily restrict access to some of its private communications network within its Embassy in the United Kingdom.”
The statement also said that the country does not “yield to pressure from other states,” which was apparently a response to allegations made by Wikileaks that Ecuador was pressured by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to cut off Assange from the internet. The Department of State has already denied this allegation.
Ecuador did clarify that this doesn’t mean there’s any change in Assange’s asylum status.
BREAKING: Ecuador admits it cut off Assange's internet due to his use of it to interfere in the U.S. election. pic.twitter.com/VNJ6sdHhHj
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) October 18, 2016
Filed in .. Source: theverge