Julian Assange sues Ecuador for better asylum terms

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a lawsuit in Ecuador seeking better access to communications as part of his asylum in the South American nation's London Embassy where he has lived for six years, his lawyer told a news conference on Friday.

"Ecuador's measures against Julian Assange have been widely condemned by the human rights community," WikiLeaks posted in a statement, describing his "continued gagging [and] duress."

Last week, Ecuador restored partial internet access to Assange, WikiLeaks and an Assange lawyer said separately  Sunday.

The move came nearly six months after the Ecuadorian government suspended Assange's communications in March after he discussed issues on social media that could damage the country's diplomatic relations, including a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow as well as Catalonian separatism.

An Assange spokesperson said Assange's communications have been only partially restored.

Assange took refuge in the embassy after British courts ordered his extradition to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual molestation case. That case has since been dropped.

But friends and supporters say Assange — who was granted Ecuadorian citizenship in January — now fears he could be arrested and eventually extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy. WikiLeaks, which published U.S. diplomatic and military secrets when Assange ran the operation, faces a U.S. grand jury investigation.

"The main issue, the requirement for the U.K. to give an undertaking that Julian would not be extradited to the U.S., remains unresolved," Barns told Reuters.

Friends and supporters of Assange say he has had contact only with lawyers since Ecuador suspended his communications with the outside world. WikiLeaks recently announced that one of Assange's longtime associates, Kristin Hrafnsson, had taken over from him as WikiLeaks editor in chief.

Watch Assange speak from Ecuador's embassy in 2017:

Defiant Assange speaks from Ecuadorian Embassy

8 years ago

Duration 0:32

'The proper war is just commencing'

As a 2016 presidential candidate, Donald Trump praised WikiLeaks for publishing hacked emails that embarrassed his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

But Trump administration officials have condemned Assange, while a federal grand jury continues a long-running criminal investigation of WikiLeaks and its personnel, a U.S. official recently confirmed.