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LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange signaled in an interview with CNN that he would consider leaving the embassy of Ecuador here if the U.S. government dropped what he called its “immoral” investigation into his controversial organization.
Assange went into hiding at the embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden where he would face sexual assault allegations. His supporters have said Sweden could then send him to the U.S. where he could be questioned about WikiLeaks’ publication of classified diplomatic information.
In the CNN interview recorded at the embassy, Assange commented on the U.S. probes into WikiLeaks.
“It’s an immoral investigation,” he said. “It breaches the first amendment, it breaches all the principles that the U.S. government says it stands for and it absolutely breaches the principles the founding fathers stood for and which most of the U.S. people believe in.”
Assange also compared his time in the embassy to “living on a space station.”
“There’s no natural light,” he said. “You have got to make all your own stuff. You can’t go out to the shops.”
Earlier in the week, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood visited Assange at the embassy. (link) And about two weeks ago, he had dinner with Lady Gaga there.
Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
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