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Ecuador expected to hand Assange to UK (Update: Ecuador denies)

Julian Assange giving a speech in 2015 at the Ecuador embassy. Photo: Reuters

Ecuador is to rescind Julian Assange’s political asylum, reports Reuters, effectively dooming him to arrest by British authorities for jumping bail.

Assange has been living in Ecuador’s London embassy since June 2012 when he successfully sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes which he has always denied.

Those allegations have since been dropped but Assange would be arrested by British police should he leave the embassy for breaching bail conditions. He believes that would pave the way for extradition to the United States for the publication of a huge cache of U.S. diplomatic and military secrets on the WikiLeaks website.

Update: An official statement from Ecuador’s government denies it. [via Kevin Poulsen]

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