12月6日，厄瓜多爾總統對基多一家廣播電臺表示，朱里安·阿桑奇隨時可能離開厄瓜多爾駐倫敦大使館，而且基本不會入獄或被引渡并面臨死刑指控。

從2012年起，維基解密的創始人阿桑奇一直待在厄瓜多爾大使館。他堅稱如果離開，英國政府就會把他引渡到美國受審。2017年4月，時任美國司法部長杰夫·塞申斯表示逮捕阿桑奇是“首要任務”。

厄瓜多爾總統萊寧·莫雷諾說已從英國方面獲得“充分保證”，英國不會把阿桑奇送到別國面對死刑，而且阿桑奇在英國會被判得很輕，因為罪名只是到厄瓜多爾大使館尋求避難逃過了保釋金。莫雷諾在直播采訪中稱：“阿桑奇面前的路很明確，就是決定離開。”

近幾個月，厄瓜多爾一直在向阿桑奇施壓并限制他行動，今年3月斷了阿桑奇的網，理由是他的政治言論違反了庇護協議。5月有報道稱，阿桑奇有可能失去庇護。最近，阿桑奇的個人衛生和養的寵物貓也受到審查。據意大利《共和報》報道，阿桑奇隨后把貓送給了別人收養。

莫雷諾還表示：“我不喜歡阿桑奇一直留在厄瓜多爾大使館，但我們一直很尊重他的人權。”他說“以近乎封閉的狀態困在大使館”六年實在太久了。

有關阿桑奇的聲明并未排除以非死刑指控將其引渡的可能。今年11月15日，美國聯邦檢察官無意間透露，針對俄羅斯干涉2016年美國大選的調查中，已將阿桑奇列為非公開指控對象。阿桑奇的維基解密泄露了美國很多秘密，包括外交電文、中情局的黑客工具以及2016年從民主黨全國委員會竊取的大量電子郵件。

在進入厄瓜多爾大使館前，阿桑奇為避免被引渡到瑞典受審抗爭了兩年，當時瑞典檢察機構考慮以性侵罪名起訴他。2017年5月，部分調查事項已超出瑞典法律的追訴時效，瑞典方面也撤銷了對阿桑奇的逮捕令。檢察機構認為不可能按潛在犯罪推進此案，目前潛在犯罪規定仍在時效內，如果阿桑奇在2020年之前前往瑞典仍將是犯罪嫌疑人。

強奸案的原告律師當時對新聞機構表示，其當事人“感到震驚”并且堅持要起訴阿桑奇。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Julian Assange can walk out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London any time he wants and face little prospect of jail time or extradition to face charges that carry a death penalty, the president of Ecuador told a radio station in Quito on Dec. 6.

Wikileaks founder Assange has remained in the Embassy since 2012, and maintains that the United Kingdom would extradite him to the U.S. to face charges if he exited his sanctuary. Then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April 2017 that arresting Assange was a “priority.”

President Lenin Moreno said he had “sufficient guarantees” from the U.K. that it would not extradite Assange to face the death penalty in another country, and that Assange faced only a brief sentence in the U.K. for skipping bail by claiming sanctuary in the embassy. “The road is clear for Mr. Assange to take the decision to leave,” Moreno said in a live radio interview.

In recent months, Ecuador has clamped down on Assange and his behavior, cutting off his Internet access in March 2018 after making political statements that Ecuador said violated his agreement for sanctuary. Reports in May indicated that Assange might be in jeopardy of losing asylum. More recently, Assange’s personal hygiene and care of his pet cat were brought under scrutiny. Assange later gave the cat up for adoption, according to La Repubblica.

President Moreno also said, “I do not like the presence of Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorean embassy, but we have been respectful of his human rights.” The president said that six years was too long for someone to remain “nearly incarcerated in an embassy.”

Assange’s statement doesn’t preclude extradition on non-capital charges, however, and on Nov. 15, U.S. federal prosecutors accidentally revealed that Assange had been fingered under seal in the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Assange’s Wikileaks released a variety of U.S. secrets, including diplomatic cables and CIA hacking tools, as well as a dump of email hacked from the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Assange entered the embassy after two years of battling an extradition to Sweden to be questioned by prosecutors, who were considering whether charges should be brought against Assange for sexual assault. Some of the matters under investigation expired under Swedish statute of limitations by May 2017, when Swedish authorities revoked the arrest warrant. Prosecutors deemed it impossible to proceed on a remaining potential offense, which remains active were Assange to return to Sweden by 2020.

The lawyer for a woman who accused Assange of rape told news agencies at the time that her client was “shocked” and maintained her accusations.