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News > World

Julian Assange Forced To Name Replacement at WikiLeaks

  • WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. | Photo: Reuters FILE

Published 28 September 2018
Opinion

Icelander Kristinn Hrafnsson has been named as Assange's replacement. He is an investigative journalist who was selected as Icelandic journalist of the year in 2010.

In a statement published on Wednesday, WikiLeaks announced that Julian Assange is no longer the Editor-in-Chief "after six months of effective incommunicado detention," but he is still a publisher for the investigative website.

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Icelander Kristinn Hrafnsson has been named as Assange's replacement.  He is an "investigative journalist selected in 2010 as Icelandic journalist of the year (his third award) for his role in the Collateral Murder publishing collaboration with Wikileaks," the statement said.

The WikiLeaks statement also highlights the challenging circumstances under which its founder, Assange, has been held "arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorean embassy," in which he has no access to communications with anybody "except for visits by his lawyers."

On March 28, just days after hosting a delegation of the United States Southern Command (Southcom), Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno decided to cut his guest’s communications with the outside world, denying him access to the internet and banning visitors who are not part of his legal team.

Julian Assange was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in the UK in 2012. Assange faced extradition to Sweden, from England, over allegations he sexually assaulted two women, which he categorically denied. Although the judicial process for the alleged sexual crimes in Sweden was lifted, he fears that if he is given to British authorities he could face prison for skipping bail and face extradition to the United States, where he would be tried for espionage and could be sentenced to death for exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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