‘Unhealthy’ fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ‘will leave the Ecuadorian embassy’

Julian Assange said that he will leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London soon.

16:33 18 August 2014

Julian Assange has told a news conference that he plans to leave Ecuadorian embassy in London after more than two years of being holed up inside the building. The WikiLeaks founder cited health concerns as one of the factors behind his decision.

Reports, which the 43-year-old strongly denies, suggest that the WikiLeaks website founder require hospital treatment for heart and lung problems.

He clarified: "I am leaving the embassy soon - but perhaps not for the reasons the Murdoch press and Sky News are saying at the moment.

"Being detained in various ways in this country without charge for four years and in this embassy for two years which has no outside area, therefore no sunlight… it is an environment in which any healthy person would find themselves soon enough with certain difficulties."
He insisted that Ecuador’s decision to grant him political asylum “is the correct one.”

The controversial anti-secrecy campaigner said: "How can it be that such a situation in Europe arises where a person is held and their freedom of movement restricted and they are kept from their family while a foreign government builds an ever larger case against that person and their organisation?

"Somehow the situation has developed here for me… where basic rights that were previously universally accepted in Europe are no longer respected."