The Daily Mail has published Ecuadorian surveillance photos of Julian Assange inside their embassy in London and claimed it is proof that the WikiLeaks founder was living in a “fetid lair.” The only problem is that the photos show a spotlessly clean bathroom and two dirty plates in the sink.

The photos also show Assange cooking a pizza on a clean counter — which the media is somehow using as “proof” that he is some kind of animal.

The photos reveal a cleaner living situation than most of the journalists in DC — my home included.

That didn’t stop the Daily Mail from making the absurd claim that the “full scale of disgusting personal hygiene, arrogance and paranoia that brought Julian Assange’s seven years holed up in an embassy to an end can be revealed today.”

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Ecuador’s UK Ambassador Jaime Marchan, who locked this journalist in a room at the embassy for an hour and a half on March 25 as he got into an intense verbal exchange with Assange, absurdly claimed without push back from the “reporter” that “when Assange wanted to be unpleasant he put excrement on the walls and underwear with excrement in the lavatory. We had to remind him to flush the toilet and clean the dishes. He had to be reminded of normal standards of behaviour all the time. He would always leave the cooker on.”

As someone who knows Assange, and has seen his personal hygiene on several occasions, this could not possibly seem more far-fetched.

The Mail did not include any mention of Assange’s testimony from October, in which he called out the fact that he is being ruthlessly attacked in the media and cannot defend himself as Ecuador denigrates his character. This left him vulnerable to lies and campaigns to make him appear unsympathetic.

While I was in London in the week prior to Assange’s arrest, I exclusively obtained a copy of his testimony before the Ecuadorian courts where he was fighting the gag he was placed under by Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in March 2018. He told the court, “due to my isolation, I have not been able to participate in the debates occurring around me and that has resulted in a climate of libel and fake news that might be expected for someone who has been in the business of exposing very large and very powerful corrupt organisations or organisations that abuse human rights.”

Assange explained that it saddened him to “see information denigrating to my character not only spread by the various organisations that I have exposed, but, in this hearing, by some members of the Ecuadorian Government.” Assange said that the attempts to attack him personally are simply to “make headlines” and aid his persecution.