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After 5-yrs of taking refuge at its embassy, Ecuador grants Wikileaks founder Assange citizenship

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After 5-yrs of taking refuge at its embassy, Ecuador grants Wikileaks founder Assange citizenship

Australian-born activist and wanted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has been granted citizenship by the foreign ministry of Ecuador which says it is offering him another layer of protection.

According to Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador’s foreign minister, Assange’s application for naturalisation was accepted last month.

“What naturalisation does is provide the asylum seeker another layer of protection,” she told reporters in Quito.

Read also: SAUDI ARABIA: 11 princes, 4 ministers, others, docked for corruption

For more than five years, 2012 to be precise, Assange has has taken refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden.

The Australian born activists decided to take refuge at the embassy amid fears that he would have been handed over to the US to face prosecution over the publication of classified military and diplomatic documents by WikiLeaks.

He was also wanted in Sweden for questioning over rape accusations but prosecutors there dropped the case last year.

 

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