"In relation to Hong Kong Mr Snowden was supplied with a refugee document of passage by the Ecuadoran government".
If his American passport was really invalidated, "the authorities of that country could give him a refugee document or supply him with Ecuadorean citizenship in a special procedure," the official said.
Asked about how Snowden had been able to travel after his US passport had been cancelled, Assange said Snowden was "supplied with a refugee document of passage by the Ecuadoran government".
Asked about how Snowden had been able to travel after his US passport had been revoked, Assange said Snowden had been "supplied with a refugee document of passage by the Ecuadoran government".
He said Mr Snowden had left Hong Kong on a refugee document of passage issued by Ecuador, and was not carrying any NSA secrets with him.
Mr Assange claimed he had helped secure a refugee document of passage from the Ecuadorean government after the US revoked his passport, though Quito has since denied authorising any such document.
"We confirm that the government of Ecuador has not authorised the delivery of any safe passage or refugee document that would allow Mr Snowden to travel to our country," Political Issues Minister Betty Tola told reporters, according to AFP news agency.
The New York Times quoted Assange as saying in an interview that his group had arranged for Snowden to travel on a "special refugee document" issued by Ecuador last Monday.
Palumbo et al, in a study carried out in the Italian province of Foggia in 2007 on 469 refugees, documented a HBsAg positivity rate of 11.1%, without any difference between African and Asian subjects.
Furthermore, based on the complex biopsychosocial disability profile of the traumatized refugees documented in the present study, the use of psychopharmaca is only advocated as a well-integrated supplement to the multidisciplinary treatment, not as a standalone "quick fix" solution.
