Ecuadorian identity card granted to Julian Assange may mark his first step to obtaining diplomatic immunity, as Ecuador wants to resolve Assange’s indefinite embassy stay, human rights activist Peter Tatchell told media.

Donald Trump has not only continued his predecessor’s crackdown on Julian Assange,  UK Foreign Office rejected the request by the Ecuadorian government to grant the Australian diplomatic status, meaning he would not be immune from prosecution if he leaves the embassy, his fate is unpredictable.

“Granting an identity card is potentially the first step towards granting citizenship of Ecuador. And there is a possibility that he could be then granted a diplomatic status, which would give him diplomatic immunity,” Tatchell, who is a human rights campaigner and the director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said. He added that diplomatic immunity would mean that the WikiLeaks co-founder would be “free to leave the embassy and travel to Ecuador and the British government would not be able to lay a finger on him.”

Ecuador generally  issues such ID cards for people claiming residency status, which are called cedulas. It is, however, unclear whether Assange was granted residency status or full