Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said he met members of the group who were selling the material and that Spanish police are now investigating the case
“Extortion is a very serious matter but of much greater concern to me is this material-gathering and spying on Julian Assange by the government … against an individual who was granted asylum,” Hrafnsson told reporters.Assange’s relations with his hosts have chilled since Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno’s personal life. Moreno has said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum.
Hrafnsson said attempts to evict Assange from the embassy had been escalating and that WikiLeaks received information last week that it could happen within hours or days. Hrafnsson said that the surveillance at the embassy was part of an escalation designed to achieve the result of having Assange extradited to the United States.Assange took refuge in the embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That probe was later dropped but WikiLeaks fears the United States wants to prosecute him.
Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
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