Ecuador cuts off Julian Assange's communication with outside world

QUITO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's government on Wednesday said it suspended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's access to all outside communications, including the internet, where he maintained an active political presence.

Some of his recent pronouncements risked impacting Ecuador's ties with other countries, the government said.

"The government of Ecuador cautions that Assange's behavior, via messages on social networks, put at risk the country's good relations with Britain, with the other countries of the European Union and other nations," the National Communications Ministry (Secom) said in a statement.

The ministry added that Assange had previously agreed to refrain from publicly making politically sensitive statements.

"The decision (to suspend access) was made after Assange failed to fulfill an agreement he signed with the government at the end of 2017, which obligates him to refrain from issuing messages that could be presumed to interfere in (the affairs of) other states," according to the statement.

On Sunday, Assange posted several messages on Twitter criticizing the arrest of Carles Puigdemont, Spain's former Catalan leader, sparking the decision to suspend his access to all communications.

"To prevent potential damage, on March 27 the London embassy suspended Assange's access to communications with the outside," the ministry said.

Ecuador granted Assange political asylum in 2012, but the anti-secrecy activist has been living in virtual captivity at its embassy in London, as the British government has refused to give him safe passage to leave the country.

Assange's lawyers are to meet with Ecuadorian envoys in London next week to discuss the measure, Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinoza said later in the day.

"We will explore options within the framework of international law and our own legislation and the Ecuadorian Constitution," Espinoza told reporters.

"The important thing is to continue to dialogue with Britain to find a definitive and lasting solution to this situation that the current government has inherited from the previous administration," she said.

Assange, who after six years in confinement is reportedly in ailing health, was granted asylum by former president Rafael Correa.

In December, Moreno's government granted him citizenship in a bid to break the diplomatic and legal deadlock with Britain over Assange's fate. The idea was to give him diplomatic status and immunity, but Britain refused to go along with the plan. Enditem