MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, will hold a press conference Monday morning and is expected to announce his next move, Sky News television reported.
Assange may say that he would leave the embassy and surrender to British police, according to the channel.
"Mr. Assange gave a newspaper interview yesterday in which he sounded very dispirited. A lot of the fighting spirit seems to have gone out of him. It's also been made clear from those around him that he's quite ill," Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said.
“He's said to have a heart condition, a chronic lung complaint, bad eyesight, high blood-pressure, all as a result of ... two years in the Ecuadorian embassy," Brunt added.
The Embassy of Ecuador has already appealed to the authorities, asking permission for Assange to travel to the hospital via the embassy car, but the Foreign Office has not responded to this request, Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.
Assange himself said that instead of spending money on keeping an eye on him at the embassy, the British authorities should use the funds for social needs.
Assange launched his website WikiLeaks in 2006, which has published hundreds of thousands of classified US government documents. In 2010 he was arrested on sexual assault charges in Sweden, but released soon after on bail.
He has been taking refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition. Ecuador granted political asylum to Assange in August 2012, saying there were indications of political persecution against him. The UK refuses to allow Assange safe passage out of the embassy — ensuring round-the-clock security.
