After more than 7 years, Julian Assange (Wikileaks co-founder) stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London ends. With the cooperation from Ecuador, where Assange had sought political refuge, London police arrested Assange. The London police took Assange into custody for failing to surrender to a warrant, that was issued by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, back in 2012. according to the Associated Press, Assanges arrest was also related to a United States (US) extradition warrant. The US charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer hacking for his ‘alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States’.
Looking back
In 2010 Assange had problems with justice in Sweden, where three women reported to him for rape and assault. At the end of that year, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant. Assange, who was in the United Kingdom at the time, reported to the British police and was released on bail. He challenged extradition to Stockholm, mainly for fear of being extradited to the US via Sweden. When he could no longer prevent this, he fled into the Ecuadorian embassy in the summer of 2012.
Why has he been arrested now?
Ecuador has handed over Assange to the British authorities, because the President Ecuador Moreno, accuses Assange of being behind a kach of him and his family. The suspsion comes from a load of e-mails, documents and photos that published at the beginning of March on the web from the phones and tablets of Moreno, his wife and daughters. These so-called INA Papers would reveal that Moreno was bribed by a Chinese dam builder and diverted this money offshore. Justice in Ecuador has since opened a preliminary investigation into the allegations at the request of the opposition.
According to President Moreno they campaign to destabilize his government. Assange would collaborate with former President Correa and the socialist Venezuelan leader Maduro. Aldo he does not provide any evidence for this. According to WikiLeaks, President Moreno only wants to lift a smokescreen by lifting the embassy asylum.
Respons by Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden, also a whistleblower and political asylum seeker, called the arrest a ‘dark moment for press freedom’. Notably, the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said in December that Assange had been ‘arbitrarily detained’ and should be allowed to leave the embassy freely. Assange remains in custody at a central London police station and will stand before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court “as soon as is possible,” according to the Metropolitan Police Service.
