UPDATE 1: Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station. His arrest was made at a US extradition request, the Metropolitan Police confirmed. Police added that the US cited the Extradition Act while filing the request.
Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry said that its country had suspended the citizenship of Assange. Furthermore, the country’s Ministry of Interior is going to provide data about two alleged ‘Russian hackers’ that have ties with Assange. Most likely, the “Russian threat” card will be played to convince the public why the WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to the US.
***
Click to see full-size image.
Julian Assange was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Julian Assange has been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service https://t.co/yhOIPbmMo2 pic.twitter.com/dUrDp228In
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 11, 2019
He was arrested under a warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 29th 2012, for failing to surrender to the court.
“He has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as is possible.
The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed that Assange was arrested.
Nearly 7yrs after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK. I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) April 11, 2019
Assange, 47, had refused to leave the embassy, claiming if he did, he would be extradited to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
He also sought sanctuary in the Embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.
Scotland Yard said it was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.
WikiLeaks’ twitter account posted accusations that Assange was illegally arrested.
URGENT: Ecuador has illigally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago.https://t.co/6Ukjh2rMKD
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
He didn’t “walk out of the embassy,” the Ecuadorian Ambassador invited the UK police to arrest him.
URGENT
Julian Assange did not "walk out of the embassy". The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately arrested.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
WikiLeaks also alleged that Assange’s life was in danger.
This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian pic.twitter.com/dVBf1EcMa5
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
As early as April 4th, an anonymous high-level source at the Ecuadorian Embassy revealed to WikiLeaks that Assange would be expelled within “hours to days.”
BREAKING: A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told @WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within "hours to days" using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext–and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.https://t.co/adnJph79wq
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 4, 2019
WikiLeaks in January also published a list of 140 denials related to the website and Julian Assange.
Some of the more significant leaks Assange and WikiLeaks made include information about a US apache helicopters airstrike in Baghdad, killing 12 including 2 Reuters reported.
Following is a short list of notable WikiLeaks releases:
- December 2007 – WikiLeaks posts the US Army manual for soldiers dealing with prisoners at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay.
- March 2008 – WikiLeaks posts internal documents from the Church of Scientology.
- September 2008 – WikiLeaks posts emails from the Yahoo email account of Sarah Palin.
- November 2008 – WikiLeaks posts a list of names and addresses of people it claims belong to the far-right British National Party.
- November 2009 – WikiLeaks posts what it claims are 500,000 messages sent during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
- April 5, 2010 – A classified military video is posted by WikiLeaks. It shows a US Apache helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and a number of Iraqi civilians in 2007. The military claimed that the helicopter crew believed the targets were armed insurgents, not civilians.
- May 2010 – The US military detains Manning for allegedly leaking US combat video, including the US helicopter gunship attack posted on WikiLeaks, and classified State Department records. Manning was turned in by Adrian Lamo, a former hacker, who Manning confided in about leaking the classified records.
- July 25, 2010 – WikiLeaks posts more than 90,000 classified documents relating to the Afghanistan war in what has been called the biggest leak since the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. The documents are divided into more than 100 categories and touch on everything from the hunt for Osama bin Laden to Afghan civilian deaths resulting from US military actions.
- October 22, 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes nearly 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War, providing a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, the role that Iran has played in supporting Iraqi militants and many accounts of abuse by Iraq’s army and police.
- November 28, 2010 – WikiLeaks begins publishing approximately 250,000 leaked State Department cables dating back to 1966. The site says the documents will be released “in stages over the next few months.”
- April 24, 2011 – Nearly 800 classified US military documents obtained by WikiLeaks reveal details about the alleged terrorist activities of al Qaeda operatives captured and housed in Guantanamo Bay.
- September 2, 2011 – WikiLeaks releases its archive of more than 250,000 unredacted US diplomatic cables.
- February 26, 2012 – WikiLeaks begins releasing what it says are five million emails from the private intelligence company, Stratfor, starting with a company “glossary” that features unflattering descriptions of US government agencies. The authenticity of the documents can’t be independently confirmed.
- July 5, 2012 – WikiLeaks begins publishing more than 2.4 million emails from Syrian politicians, government ministries and companies dating back to 2006.
- July 22, 2016 – WikiLeaks releases nearly 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee staffers. The emails appear to show the committee favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the US presidential primary.
- October 7, 2016 – More than 2,000 hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta are published by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks claims that it has more than 50,000 of Podesta’s emails and pledges to continue releasing batches of documents during the weeks leading up to the election.
- March 7, 2017 – WikiLeaks publishes what they say are thousands of internal CIA documents, including alleged discussions of a covert hacking program and the development of spy software targeting cellphones, smart TVs and computer systems in cars.
