Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has launched a legal action against the Government of Ecuador, accusing it of violating his "fundamental rights and freedoms."
Mr Assange has been living inside the country’s London Embassy for more than six years.
He was given political asylum in 2012 to avoid a European Arrest Warrant over a rape allegation in Sweden.
The investigation has been dropped, however Mr Assange fears he could be extradited to the US if he emerges – where he would face charges for WikiLeaks' publishing of huge amounts of classified information.
A judge in the UK ruled in February that the arrest warrant against him remains valid because he skipped bail in June 2012.
Julian Assange's cat sits behind a window at Ecuador's embassy in London, 14-11-2016. Image: Yui Mok/PA Archive/PA Images
Ecuador cut off Mr Assange’s internet access in March claiming he had breached a commitment to not 'interfere with the affairs of other states.'
It followed a number of Tweets he had posted criticising the decision of more than 20 countries to expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with the UK's claims Moscow was responsible for the Salisbury spy poisoning.
In a statement the Ecuadorean government claimed his social media messages "put at risk the good relations that [Ecuador] maintains with the United Kingdom, the rest of the European Union member states, and other nations."
Earlier this week, the Embassy said his internet access would be partially restored.
He was also given a new set of house rules by the embassy this week, which included taking better care of his cat Michi and activity “considered as political or interfering with the internal affairs of other states.”
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This afternoon Wikileaks said one of its lawyers Baltasar Garzon had arrived in Ecuador to launch the legal action which is expected to be heard next week.
It said the Ecuadorian Government had threatened to remove his protection and summarily cut off his access to the outside world, including refusing to allow journalists and human rights organisations to see him.”
It said the embassy had also installed three signal jammers to prevent his phone calls and internet access.
It said lawyers were also challenging the government’s new “special protocol” for his asylum – which it claims has made his political asylum dependent on "censoring" his freedom of opinion, speech and association.
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