Fears that WikiLeaks founder will be extradited to the US if he leaves London embassy

Supporters of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gathered outside the Ecuadorian embassy in central London after the organisation said its sources in Ecuador had revealed he could be removed from the building “within hours to days”.

Ecuador’s foreign ministry released a statement saying it “doesn’t comment on rumours, theories or conjectures that don’t have any documented backing”, but a senior Ecuadorian official said no decision had been made.

WikiLeaks believes Assange would be extradited to the US if he left the building and was arrested by the Metropolitan police on an outstanding warrant for failing to surrender to bail.

An advertising lorry displaying a billboard with photos of Assange and Chelsea Manning with US flag gags across their mouths and the words “#Freespeech … except for war crimes” was briefly parked directly in front of the embassy.

It was moved on after an armed officer from diplomatic protection told the driver he had had a complaint from the embassy that the vehicle was blocking its diplomatic parking spot. He stressed that his objection to the vehicle was solely about where it was parked.

Supporters handed out leaflets urging people to write to their MPs to defend WikiLeaks and took turns to hold up a banner saying: “The truth will set you free. Free Julian Assange.”

Fethi, 52, a gardener from London, said he had come to protest because he feared Assange would be bundled away like Chelsea Manning to be imprisoned in the US.

“It’s the new government in Ecuador trying to make a present to Donald Trump,” he said. “Theresa May will send him [Assange] to the US straight away. We’re here to support free speech, we’re here to support Julian Assange. We are worried the police will arrest him. He exposed governments around the world.”

Vaughan Smith, a journalist and friend of Assange, visited him at the embassy on Friday afternoon, and said afterwards that the atmosphere inside had changed.

“It’s very tense, nobody knows when exactly [Assange might be asked to leave], but there’s a sense of imminency,” he said.

At the same time, Smith stressed that those at WikiLeaks saying Assange was about to be expelled from the embassy were far removed from the situation on the ground.

He described his friend’s state of mind as “strong and stable” but also “thoughtful”. Smith said: “It’s clear to him he faces prison. If he’s kicked out he will be in a British prison for a while and face extradition to the US and lifetime imprisonment.”

A member of staff inside the six-storey building declined to comment.

A spokesman for the British prime minister said: “It’s obviously a matter for the Ecuadorian government. You’ll know that there has been official contact between the UK government and the Ecuadorian government for a period of time now to try to seek a resolution to this. But I don’t have anything on the reports.”

Assange has been in the embassy since 2012 after he sought refuge there following a ruling that he should be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

Sweden dropped the case in 2017 but Assange remained in the embassy due to the outstanding Met police warrant. He fears an arrest by British police will lead to him being extradited to the US to face charges over the WikiLeaks website’s release of sensitive US government files.