WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fears he may be assassinated if he steps outside the Ecuadorian embassy.
In an interview with The Times Magazine, Mr Assange said he has not had any fresh air or sunlight for three years because it is too dangerous to leave the building.
He told the magazine: "There are security issues with being on the balcony. There have been bomb threats and assassination threats from various people."
Despite believing it is "not likely" that he will be shot, he worries that if he is ever free he could be kidnapped or "droned" by the CIA.
"I'm a white guy," Mr Assange said. "Unless I convert to Islam it's not that likely that I'll be droned, but we have seen things creeping towards that."
Yet, he believes his controversial public figure status has led to "quite a number of threats by unstable people".
The Australian was granted political asylum by the government of Ecuador under the 1951 Refugee Convention in 2012.
He believes he risks extradition to the US from the UK and Sweden, where he is under investigation for his involvement with Wikileaks. He also faces extradition to Sweden for an investigation into an alleged rape.
Over a period of nearly five years, he has been detained without charge in prison, under house arrest and in the embassy, with round-the-clock police guard thought to cost more than £11 million.
Mr Assange believes his situation will be resolved in the next two years, by which point he will have spent five years living in the embassy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel