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How Julian Assange became an unwelcome guest in Ecuador's embassy
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia May 16, 2018 04:08pm |
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| Category | Investigation |
| Author | Luke Harding, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Dan Collyns |
| News Date | Tuesday, May 15, 2018 08:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In June 2012, a tall, mysterious figure turned up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He rang the bell, walked in and asked for political asylum.
It was Julian Assange. Days earlier, he had lost his long legal fight against extradition to Sweden, where two women accused him of rape.
Soon afterwards, the left-leaning then president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, agreed to Assange’s request, precipitating a major diplomatic row with the British government. And a full-blown siege. Metropolitan police officers swarmed outside the building, ready to arrest Assange should he venture out.
It was against this febrile backdrop that Correa authorised a secret programme named “Operation Guest”. It was later renamed “Operation Hotel”. The guest was Assange, politely referred to as el huésped.
The goal, at first, was to stop detectives bursting into the modest ground-floor embassy and dragging Assange away.
But documents seen by the Guardian show it developed into something more complex. The aim seems to have changed from protecting Assange – which propped up WikiLeaks in the process – to spying on him. |
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