Ecuador grants Julian Assange citizenship same day UK denied him diplomatic status

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in asylum at the nation’s embassy in London for more than five years, same day the UK denied him a diplomatic status.

Ecuador’s foreign minister made the announcement on Wednesday night that officials had decided to permit Assange’s naturalisation while they look for ways to resolve his situation.

Ecuador gave Assange, 46 political asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims. Sweden dropped the case, though Assange has remained in the embassy because he is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

On Thursday, Britain’s Foreign Office said it had rejected Ecuador’s request to grant diplomatic status to Assange, who was born in Australia.

The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter, the British foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ecuador’s attempt to obtain diplomatic status for Assange comes as part of the country’s broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice,” Britain’s foreign ministry said.

Assange has refused to step outside the embassy for fear of being extradited to the United States, for WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said on Tuesday her government is looking at the possibility of a “third country or a personality” stepping in to resolve the stand-off.

No solution will be achieved without international co-operation and the co-operation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out,” Espinosa told foreign correspondents in Quito.