WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Wednesday he is launching a legal challenge against the Donald Trump administration.
The Guardian reported that lawyers for the activist have filed an application to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, aimed at forcing U.S. prosecutors to “unseal” any secret charges against him. It is believed that American prosecutors have been investigating Assange since at least 2011 over his website’s publication of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables.
The legal move comes at a time when Assange’s protection by the government of Ecuador appears on shaky ground. Assange has been staying in a Knightsbridge flat, which houses the Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012, when he fled extradition proceedings at the U.K.’s Supreme Court.
But the relationship has deteriorated since a new government took office in the Latin American country in 2017. In December, Ecuadorean President Lenín Moreno said Assange can leave Ecuador’s London Embassy.
In a radio interview, Moreno said he has received sufficient written guarantees from the British government that Assange would not be extradited to any country where he would face the death penalty, according to the Associated Press.
However, Moreno said he would not force Assange out.
The WikiLeaks activist last year accused the embassy of violating his “fundamental rights and freedoms” by restricting his internet access.
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