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Wikileaks Julian Assange Ecuador

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange predicted to surrender

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By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

August 18, 2014 | 1 min read

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is predicted to leave the Ecuadorian embassy and hand himself over to the police today, as a news conference is announced.

Sky News believes that Assange, who has been in the embassy for two years, may decide to stand down due to health issues.

Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "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.

"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."

WikiLeaks publishes classified media from anonymous sources online, with over 250,000 documents published between 2010 and 2011.

UPDATED: Assange told the press conference he "will be leaving the embassy soon" but denied that it is for reasons "reported by the Murdoch press".

Wikileaks Julian Assange Ecuador

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