Man 'close' to Julian Assange arrested in Ecuador

A man reported to have close ties with Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has landed in the hands of the police in Ecuador.

Interior Minister María Paula Romo did not issue the man's name, but said the arrest is in line with the ongoing investigation.

The Associated Press, however, identified the man as Swedish software developer Ola Bini.

The arrest came as Ecuado decided to abruptly end Assange’s seven-year asylum in its London embassy on Thursday.

It followed a long deterioration in relations, driven in part by suspicions he was secretly fuelling corruption allegations against President Lenin Moreno.

British police on Thursday arrested the WikiLeaks founder, who sought asylum in the Andean nation’s diplomatic mission during the government of former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa - who saw Assange as a hero for leaking secret US documents.

By contrast, Moreno took a dim view of Assange when he took office in 2017, ordering the Australian hacker to cut back his online political commentary, stop riding his skateboard in the halls of the embassy and clean up after his pet cat.

Moreno’s government accused WikiLeaks of being behind an anonymous website that said Moreno’s brother had created offshore companies that his family used to fund a luxurious lifestyle in Europe while Moreno was a delegate to a UN agency.

Moreno denies wrongdoing.

The leaked materials, dubbed the “INA Papers,” contained private photographs of Moreno and his family. After the release of the materials, Moreno said that Assange had no right to “hack private accounts and phones,” without directly accusing him.

WikiLeaks tweeted about the reports but, in messages and statements to Reuters, strongly denied that Assange was responsible for the leaks or had anything to do with their initial publication.