Assange Needs to Leave Ecuador´s Embassy

Assange Needs to Leave Ecuador´s Embassy - Lawyer

03:01 11/11/2012

MEXICO, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, sheltering inside Ecuador’s embassy in London, should not remain there any longer as his health condition might begin worsening, his lawyer Baltasar Garzon said.

Assange, 41, has been hiding at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June to avoid his extradition to Sweden, where he faces a case in a rape trial that he calls politically motivated.

“If his stay at the embassy continues we will encounter with [Assange’s] serious health and psychological problems,” said Spanish ex-judge Garzon, who is currently on a visit to Brazil.

Assange stays in a studio room that has space for little more than a mattress on the floor, a rickety shelving unit, a small round table with leatherette chairs. There is also a running machine and he runs between three and five miles each day. He maintains a strict exercise regime, seeing a personal trainer every other day, but his health condition, according to his lawyer, prompts concerns.

Garzon said his client is not evading the trial in Sweden, but Assange fears that he could be extradited to the United States, where he could be charged with espionage.

“We would like for the trial to take place in Sweden, but we want secure conditions,” Garzon said.

Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador in August but he still faces arrest the minute he steps out of the embassy building.

His whistleblowing site Wikileaks made an enemy of the U.S. government in 2010, when it leaked hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic cables. The U.S. authorities have not ruled out requesting his extradition from Sweden.

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