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Julian Assange Loses Bid to Ease Terms of His U.K. Asylum

Julian Assange Loses Bid to Ease Terms of His U.K. Asylum

(Bloomberg) -- Wikileaks leader Julian Assange lost his court bid to overturn new house rules imposed on him at Ecuador’s Embassy in London where’s he’s been holed up for the last six years to avoid arrest in the U.K.

Ecuadorian Judge Karina Martinez rejected Assange’s request for an injunction against new Foreign Ministry protocols, which bar him from commenting on affairs in a way that could harm Ecuador’s foreign relations, set parameters on his visitation privileges and require him to clean up after his cat.

Assange, an Ecuadorian citizen since December, could be expelled from the embassy should he fail to comply with the new rules. The U.K., where he’s wanted for skipping bail, earlier this year informed Ecuador that, were Assange to abandon the embassy, he would not be extradited to a country where he could face the death penalty, Ecuador’s Attorney General Inigo Salvador said.

"There’s a limit as to how low a country can stoop," said Assange, now with a flowing white beard and hair, said Assange via audio-video feed from the embassy. The new rules are a veiled attempt by Ecuador to end his asylum status because of pressure by the U.S. and U.K. on the government of President Lenin Moreno, he added.

The terms of the protocol are humiliating and keep him from meeting his children and working as a journalist, Assange said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Kueffner in Quito at skueffner1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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