Quito, April 11, 2019

The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador informs that the President of the Republic, Lenín Moreno Garcés, ordered today the termination of the diplomatic asylum granted in 2012 to Mr. Julian Assange.

The granting and termination of diplomatic asylum is a sovereign power of a State. The decision of Ecuador has come after having the guarantees granted by Great Britain that there are no risks for the life and integrity of Mr. Assange and for his repeated violation of the norms established in the inter-American conventions on diplomatic asylum in Havana (1928) and Caracas (1954), as well as for the breaches of the Special Protocol of Coexistence of the Embassy.

The Ambassador of Ecuador in London has formally notified Mr. Assange of the decision to terminate diplomatic asylum. Mr. Assange has left the Embassy escorted by the English Diplomatic Police.

Mr. Assange must appear before the British courts and has no request for extradition to which the Ecuadorian State is aware. Great Britain has offered guarantees, at the request of Ecuador, that if an extradition request were submitted, it would not be delivered to a country where the death penalty could be imposed and executed or be subject to torture or ill-treatment.