The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry has announced that it had recalled an employee from its embassy in the UK because of the staffer's close relationship with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
According to Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Valencia, after the government of President Lenin Moreno came to power, the diplomatic staff of the Ecuadorian embassy in London "was renewed."
READ MORE: Assange Told Ecuador Court He Was an 'Assassination Risk'
"One staff member was extremely close to Assange on a personal basis. We paid him as an embassy employee, and he worked very closely with him. This is wrong, because the embassy staff should only be accountable to their state, and not represent the interests of unauthorised persons," Jose Valencia said.
Assange's lawyer Carlos Poveda told Sputnik last week he considered certain moves by the Ecuadorian authorities as signs of their intention to expel the activist from his asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been living since 2012.
READ MORE: 'It's Highly Likely Assange Will Be Arrested by UK & Extradited to US' — Friend
In addition to this, WikiLeaks released a transcript, revealing that Assange told a court in late 2018 that he had received assassination threats.
Assange has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012. The activist has repeatedly said he feared extradition to the United States, due to the fact that he had published thousands of leaked classified US government documents. His defence team has cited media reports suggesting that Moreno had sought to reach an agreement with the United States on handing Assange over to Washington in exchange for "debt relief."