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Ecuadorian Embassy Detains US Journalist As Julian Assange Raises Hell Over Full ...

• https://www.zerohedge.com

A US journalist found herself locked in a cold, surveilled room within the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Monday, while a furious Julian Assange argued with embassy officials who had barred him from entering the room unless he submitted to a "full-body search and continuous surveillance," according to an account which has been confirmed by WikiLeaks and Assange's legal team

The journalist, Gateway Pundit's Cassandra Fairbanks, has now visited Assange three times in the past year - reporting deteriorating conditions with each trip.

Ecuador granted the WikiLeaks founder asylum in their London embassy in 2012 on the grounds that his extradition to Sweden for a now-dropped sexual assault investigation would likely result in him being sent to the United States, where he could face the death penalty over publishing secret American documents. While Sweden dropped their investigation in 2017, the WikiLeaks founder still faces immediate arrest in the UK for breaching his bail in 2010. 

From the start, Ecuador told both the U.K. and Swedish governments that it would immediately send Assange to Stockholm in exchange for a pledge from Sweden not to use that as a pretext to extradite him to the U.S., something the Swedish government had the power to do but refused. -The Intercept

Ecuador's former president, Rafael Correa, has denounced Assange's treatment under the care of the new Moreno administration as "torture," as his communications with the outside world have been virtually eliminated, and his voice effectively silenced from public discourse. 

Assange's oppressive treatment, and that of his guests, was more evident than ever to Fairbanks: 

The crackdown on visitors was felt before I even entered the embassy. It's the third time I've visited in the past year, and each time the atmosphere seems progressively worse.

Just like my previous visit, since new rules for visitors were enacted, I couldn't take my phone into the meeting without giving the Ecuadorian officials a swathe of data. If you want to take it in with you, they request its brand, model, serial number, IMEI number, and telephone number. I was also advised that Ecuador could not be trusted to hold my phone while I met with Assange, so I left it behind and walked to the embassy phoneless, several minutes early to make sure I was on time. -Gateway Pundit