LONDON: British police on Thursday arrested the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange after Ecuador withdrew his asylum status. The arrest was made at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder has been claiming asylum since 2012.
Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station before he’s presented at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. London Metropolitan Police took to Twitter to announce the decision.
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
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police 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 police further added.
Assange’s future in the embassy was called into question last year after the president of Ecuador said he would “eventually” have to leave the property and revealed that he was in discussions with British authorities to end his asylum, reported CNBC.
The WikiLeaks founder was first granted asylum in 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks commented upon the termination of the asylum status of Assange and called it “illegal” in its tweet.
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
WikiLeaks also claimed that Assange did not “walk out of the embassy” rather the Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy.
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
Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when his organisation WikiLeaks published a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters reporters.
Later that year, the group released over 490,000 secret documents detailing the confidential US-led military campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Later on, more than 250,000 classified cables from US embassies and almost 3 million cables dating back to 1973 were released by the organization.
