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Ecuador today said Britain should let WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leave his embassy hideout to go sunbathing as it was his “fundamental right”.

Assange, 41, has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in Kensington for nearly a year as he fights extradition to Sweden on sex assault charges. Met police keep a 24-hour watch on the building and have orders to arrest him if he steps outside.

Ecuador’s foreign minister Ricardo Patino, who is to meet William Hague in London on Sunday, today said his country would continue to protect Assange. Insisting the Australian could only sunbathe through the window of his embassy hideout, he said: “We believe he has a fundamental right to sunbathe.”

He added: “His right to intimacy, mobility, a normal life and health is being restricted.

“I will be asking the British government to allow Mr Assange to sunbathe and enjoy the warm weather and sunshine because unfortunately, at this moment in time, he hasn’t been able to do so for a year.”

Assange was given diplomatic asylum two months after seeking refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy on June 19 last year. Mr Patino is expected to tell Britain it has a duty to grant Assange a safe passage out of the UK.

The Wikileaks founder says he fears he will be handed over to the US and face the death penalty if he is sent to Sweden.