WikiLeaks founder taken into custody on US extradition warrant and for failing to surrender to bail
https://youtu.be/8oqJiNzJQ_E
Police have forcibly removed the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrested him, as the Ecuadorian government withdrew asylum.
Assange, 47, was taken into police custody for failing to surrender to bail and on a US extradition warrant, after Metropolitan police officers were invited into the Knightsbridge embassy. He had taken refuge there for almost seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.
He was being held on Thursday on a warrant issued by Westminster magistrates court on 29 June 2012 when he failed to surrender to the court.
Footage showed Assange, now heavily bearded, shouting and gesticulating and being carried out in handcuffs by plainclothes officer and put in a police van shortly after 10am.
Assange had refused to leave the embassy, claiming he would be extradited to the US for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
Why was Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy?
An arrest warrant for Assange was issued in August 2010 for two separate sexual assault allegations in Sweden. Police questioned him in Stockholm, where he denied the allegations. After returning to the UK, he feared that if he were extradited to Sweden he might be extradited on to the US, where he could face charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret US government files.
In December 2010 he appeared at an extradition hearing in the UK, where he was granted bail. Following a legal battle, the courts ruled Assange should be extradited to Sweden. The WikiLeaks founder entered the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2012. He was granted political asylum, and remained there until his arrest.
In May 2017, Swedish authorities dropped their investigations. However, the British police warrant for his arrest for skipping bail still remained. Lawyers for Assange failed in January 2018 to have the warrant torn up, arguing it had “lost its purpose and its function”.
Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. A mistake in a US court document in an unrelated case hinted criminal charges may have been prepared in secret. The text of the court filing includes two mentions of someone called Assange, and a suggestion that the documentation in the case ‘would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges’.
Jamie Grierson, Home affairs correspondent
Scotland Yard said: “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 [Metropolitan Police Service] has 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.”
The Home Office confirmed that the US request for Assange’s extradition was for an alleged “computer-related offence”. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America. He is accused in the United States of America computer-related offences.”
The president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, said on Twitter: “In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life- protocols.”
WikiLeaks said the Ecuadorian government had acted illegally in terminating Assange’s political asylum “in violation of international law”.
Outside the Ecuadorian embassy a group of reporters were interviewing an Assange supporter wearing a placard reading “free Julian Assange” around his neck.
Kyle Farren, 22, from Knightsbridge, said: “I think I might have arrived just as he was taken. He was taken at around 10.30.
“When I arrived there was three vans all parked out here and there was a semi-circle of police around the entrance, and a policewoman asked me to move on.”
A police van filled with officers that was outside the door of the embassy left soon after the Guardian arrived. Across the road several dozen broadcast news journalists set up their cameras and lights. But only a single Assange supporter, Farren, remained outside, manning a shrine to the publisher and taking interviews with reporters from around the world.
An arrest warrant was issued for Assange in 2010 for two separate allegations – one of rape and one of molestation – after he visited Sweden for a speaking trip. He launched a legal battle against extradition to Sweden but when that failed entered the embassy in Hans Crescent and requested political asylum.
Elisabeth Massi Fritz, a lawyer for one of the two women who accused Assange, welcomed the arrest. “My client and I have just received the news that Assange has been arrested. That what we have been waiting and hoping for for almost seven years has now happened is clearly a shock to my client. We will do everything we can to ensure that the prosectors resume the Swedish preliminary investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape.”
The Swedish prosecution authority is expected to issue a statement later.
Assange’s arrest comes one day after WikiLeaks accused the Ecuadorian government of an “extensive spying operation” against him, during which they claimed meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed.
The arrest was welcomed by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who tweeted: “Julian Assange is no hero and no-one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years. Thank you Ecuador and President Lenin Moreno for your cooperation with the Foreign Office to ensure Assange faces justice.”
Timeline
Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy
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WikiLeaks releases about 470,000 classified military documents concerning American diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.
A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims.
He turns himself in to police in London and is placed in custody. He is later released on bail and calls the Swedish allegations a smear campaign.
A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Assange fears Sweden will hand him over to US authorities who could prosecute him.
He takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He requests, and is later granted, political asylum.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Assange has been ‘arbitrarily detained’ and should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden. Britain and Sweden rebuff the non-binding ruling.
Assange is questioned in a two-day interview over the allegations at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish authorities.
WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are ‘guaranteed’. It comes after one of the site’s main sources of leaked documents, Chelsea Manning, is given clemency.
Nigel Farage is spotted visiting the Ecuadorian embassy.
Swedish prosecutors say they have closed their seven-year sex assault investigation into Assange. British police say they would still arrest him if he leaves the embassy as he breached the terms of his bail in 2012.
Britain refuses Ecuador’s request to accord Assange diplomatic status, which would allow him to leave the embassy without being arrested.
He loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.
Ecuador cuts off Assange’s internet access alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries’ affairs.
US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.
Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno says Assange has ‘repeatedly violated’ the conditions of his asylum at the embassy.
Police arrest Assange at the embassy after his asylum was withdrawn. Scotland Yard confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition.
Though the Ecuadorian government was sympathetic at the time Assange sought refuge, a change of government in 2017 has seen a toughening of its stance.
Hunt said Moreno “took a courageous decision which has meant we’ve been able to resolve the situation today”.
“We’re not making any judgment about Julian Assange’s innocence or guilt – that is for the courts to decide – but what is not acceptable is for someone to escape facing justice and he’s been trying to do that for a very long time.”
The home secretary, Sajid Javid, tweeted: “Nearly 7yrs after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK.” He added: “No-one is above the law.”
The Europe and Americas minister, Sir Alan Duncan, said: “It is absolutely right that Assange will face justice in the proper way in the UK. It is for the courts to decide what happens next.” He said the arrest followed “extensive dialogue” between the UK and Ecuador.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hoped that Assange’s rights would not be violated.
Britain has guaranteed to Ecuador that Assange will not be extradited to a country where he could face the death penalty. Moreno said in an video posted on Twitter following the arrest: “In line with our strong commitment to human rights and international law, I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules.”
Assange supporters reported increased police activity at the embassy last weekend. Two armed officers went into the building on Saturday and people taking part in a vigil said teams of plainclothes officers were outside the embassy throughout the weekend.