QUITO: Ecuador said Tuesday it had cut the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up at its London embassy, due to leaks by the anti-secrecy website that could impact the US election.
\nWikiLeaks has in recent weeks published a damaging trove of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign, which accuses it of trying to sway the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
\n“The government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” the Ecuadoran foreign ministry said in a statement.
\nIn consequence, the ministry said, it decided to “temporarily restrict” communications at the embassy.
\nUS officials have formally blamed state-sponsored Russian hackers for the hacking of internal emails from the Democratic Party and other institutions.
\nOn Monday WikiLeaks accused Ecuador of cutting off Assange\u2019s internet communications at the behest of US Secretary of State John Kerry, citing “multiple US sources.”
\nThe United States denied the allegation.
\n“While our concerns about WikiLeaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down WikiLeaks is false,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
\n“Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period.”
\nEcuador also implicitly denied the claim in its statement.
\n“Ecuador\u2019s foreign policy responds to sovereign decisions alone and does not yield to pressure from other states,” it said.
\nEcuador reaffirmed its decision to grant Assange asylum, and said the restriction on communications at its embassy did not hinder WikiLeaks itself.
\n“This temporary restriction does not prevent the WikiLeaks organization from carrying out its journalistic activities,” it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
QUITO: Ecuador said Tuesday it had cut the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up at its London embassy, due to leaks by the anti-secrecy website that could impact the US election. WikiLeaks has in recent weeks published a damaging trove of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign, which accuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n