Benediction

April 11th 2019 Julian Assange leaving the Ecuadorian Embassy in London 

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Monday said Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had violated his asylum conditions by using the Ecuadorian Embassy in London as a "center for spying" during his seven-year stay.

"It is unfortunate that, from our territory and with the permission of authorities of the previous government, facilities have been provided within the Ecuadorian embassy in London to interfere in processes of other states," he said in an email interview with British newspaper The Guardian.

"We cannot allow our house, the house that opened its doors, to become a center for spying," Moreno added. "This activity violates asylum conditions.Under former left-wing Ecuadorian President Rafael Corea, Assange was granted asylum in August 2012 due to perceived threats from a United States secret investigation into him.

But on April 11, embassy officials allowed police to enter the building to arrest Assange due to breach of British bail conditions linked to a Swedish extradition request. Police later said the 47-year-old Australian citizen was "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities."

Assange's relationship with Ecuador deteriorated after he was accused of leaking information about Moreno's personal life, but Moreno, who became president in May 2017, insisted that his government's decision was "based on international law."

He told the Guardian that Britain had given "written guarantees" that Assange would not be extradited to "third countries where he could suffer torture, ill-treatment or the death penalty."

Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer who said she regularly visited Assange at the embassy, told Sky News on Sunday that Ecuador was "making some pretty outrageous allegations to justify an unlawful and extraordinary act to allow British police to come inside an embassy."

"The politics of the case, with respect to Ecuador, changed with the change of government, with Lenin Moreno coming to power in May 2017," Robinson said. "And ever since then, inside the embassy, it's become more and more difficult." from DW.com

Who's spying on who?

Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in 'The Fifth Estate'  (2013)

The hand gesture is used for benediction, which translates from Latin to mean ‘speak well’. This is used at the end of church service as a prayer and blessing.