April 11, 2019
LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested from the Ecuadorian
embassy in London. Assange sought refuge here in 2012 while facing sexual assault
allegations in Sweden, which he denied. Two female Wikileaks volunteers had
accused hin of sexual harassment. He was on bail and sought asylum in Ecuador
embassy. Now Ecuador said it had run out of patience with Assange's behaviour
and withdrew his asylum. The UK police said the US wanted to extradite him.
Assange (47) was holed up in the embassy to avoid Swedish sex claims and US
authorities, who want him over an alleged conspiracy with ex- intelligence analyst
Chelsea Manning, who had been sentenced.
The Met police said: "The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf
of Westminster magistrate's court, and was invited into the embassy by the ambassador,
following the Ecuadorian Government’s withdrawal of asylum."
His arrest on Thursday also ended the nearly seven-year standoff between him
and the US Justice Department and raising questions about journalistic freedom.
The US charges Assange with defence department computer hacking conspiracy.
Wikileaks was engaged in stealing the secrets of Governments and several Governments
were trying to get this shut.
Questions are being raised if this will open the door to journalists being
arrested.
Wikileaks was founded in 2006. In 2010 it published 90,000 files on Afghan
war. It was the largest Intelligence leak in US history. About 400,000 documents
on Iraqi war were also published. In 2016, Wikileaks released 20,000 leaked
emails from Democratic National Campaign staff. In 2016 US Prez poll Wikileaks
had a role in the reported Russian deals with Trump campaign. Trump jr and Wikileaks
exchanged messages during the campaign.
National security and people's privacy were casualties of Wikileaks.
He now faces a battle against extradition to America where he was charged in
his absence with "one of the largest compromises of classified information in
the history of the US".
