Julian Assange has not been heard from in public since March 28,
2018 after an executive gag order by the government of Ecuador.
The unpublished, "leaked" transcript of Mr. Assange is from October 29, 2018 where he asked an Ecuadorian court for an urgent injunction ("protection order") against his gagging and isolation. The court banned journalists and the public from recording the proceedings although a court recording was subsequently obtained through legal process. It has never been revealed before.
Last
December the New York Times revealed the country's president tried to
sell Assange to the US for debt relief. Ecuador received $4.2 billion in a US backed IMF bailout in February. The US seeks his extradition for his 2010 publications on war and diplomacy. His alleged source, Chelsea Manning, was re-jailed last month to coerce her into a secret interrogation against him.
On Friday WikiLeaks revealed that two government sources said Mr. Assange's expulsion would be in a matter of "hours or days" leading to a public backlash against the government and the intervention of two UN Special Rapporteurs. In response, Ecuador's ministry of Foreign Affairs, in menacing statement released at 3am this morning (GMT), stated that revoking asylum is a "sovereign act" but that his expulsion is not "imminent" -- but declined to define what was meant by "imminent" or rule out a non-imminent expulsion.