Henry Nicholls via Reuters
Julian Assange has been stripped of his Ecuadorian citizenship after the South American country found what it has called “inconsistencies,” varying signatures, and unpaid fees on his naturalization papers, The Guardian reports. The 50-year-old founder of WikiLeaks has been in a high-security prison in London since April 2019 for skipping bail in 2012. He is also fighting extradition charges to the U.S., where he faces a life sentence on 17 espionage charges for publishing volumes of classified documents on his website. Assange lawyer Carlos Poveda said he will appeal Ecuador’s decision. “More than the importance of nationality, it is a matter of respecting rights and following due process in withdrawing nationality,” he said in a statement. Ecuador granted citizenship to Assange in 2018 after he spent seven years in their London embassy fighting extradition to Sweden on rape and sexual-assault charges, which have since been dropped.