Julian Assange’s Cat Is Safe And Sound, WikiLeaks Confirms
Julian Assange’s “WikiLeaks Cat,” the feline that accompanied him as he held out for years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition, is alive and well and in good hands, WikiLeaks confirms. As Slate reports, this puts to an end to days of concern about what would become of the feline as its former owner looks at a lengthy prison sentence.
Assange got the pet cat at some point during 2016 to “keep him company” as he holed up, alone, in the embassy. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Assange named the cat “Michi,” which he claimed is what Ecuadorians call cats. It bears noting that Ecuadorians speak Spanish, and that the Spanish word for cat is gato.
Naming controversies aside, the feline was quite popular, even having his own Twitter account. The account, however, has been disabled since 2018, after Assange’s Twitter privileges were taken away by the Ecuadorian government.
Not for nothing, the Ecuadorian government had also given Assange a list of rules for the cat, which included feeding him, cleaning up after him, and treating him humanely.
Michi’s welfare became a matter of concern for Assange supporters and animal lovers last week after news broke that Ecuador had removed Assange’s asylum protections, freeing up the London police to place him under arrest. Assange will almost certainly be spending the next few years either behind bars or otherwise in government custody, as he faces criminal charges in the United States and possibly other countries as well.
For those of you concerned about Julian Assange's #EmbassyCat, there are reports that the feline moved out of the Ecuadorian embassy around November last year https://t.co/GMlXnQbr9Q pic.twitter.com/1UnZQEROo3
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) April 11, 2019
Fortunately, the cat is safe and sound and in good hands, according to WikiLeaks. Over the past few days, reports indicated that Michi had left Assange’s apartment for greener pastures months ago. The news organization confirmed those reports, putting an end to speculation about the fate of the feline.
Specifically, it appears that Assange saw the writing on the wall months ago, and decided to ship the animal off to a safe place at some point in October 2018. On Saturday, WikiLeaks took to Twitter to confirm that the animal has since been re-homed.
“We can confirm that Assange’s cat is safe. Assange asked his lawyers to rescue him from embassy threats in mid-October. They will be reunited in freedom.”
While the tweet does provide some comfort for those who were worried about the feline’s well-being, it doesn’t answer specific questions about the animal’s whereabouts, caretaker, or even what country it’s living in.
