Julian Assange, Wikileaks
co-founder, has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Assange, who was accused of
releasing secret documents that embarrassed the United States government, was
arrested by the British police on Thursday at the Ecuadorean embassy in London,
where he had lived for years.
“Julian Assange, 47, has today,
Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador, Hans Crescent, SW1 on a warrant issued
by Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 29 June 2012, for failing to surrender to
the court,” the Metropolitan police said in a statement.
“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.”
It is believed that the
Australian native has been a resident of the embassy after Ecuador withdrew the
asylum it had granted him seven years ago.
He took refuge in the embassy in
June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced questions about sexual
assault allegations.
But Lenin Moreno, Ecuador’s
president, said it withdrew Assange’s asylum after his repeated violations to
international conventions.
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006
as a medium where people could publish sensitive and often classified materials
anonymously.
The website, however, gained huge
attention in 2010 after classified documents and videos belonging to the United
States on the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq were made public.
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