Ecuador says Assange put feces on embassy walls
Ecuador’s Interior Minister María Paula Romo says Julian Assange's asylum was revoked because there was sufficient evidence that he was meddling in Ecuador's internal affairs in an effort to destabilize the government.
Romo also reiterated President Lenin Moreno's remarks that Assange was consistently violating embassy residency rules, and specifically called out how he would put feces on the walls.
"For several years now, one of the key members of the WikiLeaks organization and a person close to Assange has lived in Ecuador," Romo said at a press conference Thursday.
This member "works closely and has traveled with Ricardo Patiño to Peru, Spain and Russia."
Patiño was chancellor during the government of former president of Correa, who was in power when Assange was granted asylum.
CNN has reached out to Chancellor Patiño. Previously Patiño defended the innocence of Assange saying his fight was a "fight for freedom of expression."
Two Russian hackers are also suspected of meddling in the attempt to destabilize the government and their information will be delivered to the Office of the Attorney General of Ecuador, Romi said.
"We are not going to allow Ecuador to become a hacking center and we cannot allow illegal activities to take place in the country in order to harm citizens or other governments," Rome said. The authorities did not clarify whether these people have been detained or only identified.
The interior minister said that "in the next few hours" the government of Ecuador will provide additional evidence that justifies the decision to end Assange’s asylum.
During former President Correa's government and while Patiño was chancellor, "they tolerated things like Assange putting feces on the embassy walls and other behaviors far from the minimum respect that a guest can have," said Romo.
~ From CNN's Ana Melgar and Radina Gigova in Atlanta
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