Julian Assange dragged from embassy and arrested after Ecuador withdraws asylum
London police say they were 'invited into the embassy by the ambassador' to arrest Assange, whom Ecuador accused of breaking 'daily life protocols'
LONDON — Police in London say they’ve arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy on a court warrant dating back to 2012.
In a statement Thursday, police said Assange 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.”
Footage shows a bearded and balding Assange being forcibly dragged from the embassy by plain-clothed officials and hoisted into a police van.
Assange’s attorney said he’s been arrested on a U.S. extradition request as well as for breaching U.K. bail conditions.
Also, the Swedish lawyer representing the alleged victim in a rape investigation involving Assange said on Thursday that she would push to have prosecutors reopen the probe, which was dropped in 2017.
“My client and I have just received the news that Assange has been arrested. The fact that what we have been waiting and hoping for nearly seven years is now happening, of course, comes as a shock to my client,” Elisabeth Massi Fritz said.
“We will do all we can to get prosecutors to reopen the Swedish preliminary criminal investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and be prosecuted for rape,” she said in a text message.
Assange hasn’t left the embassy since August 2012 for fear that if he steps off Ecuador’s diplomatic soil he will be arrested and extradited to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
Assange’s relationship with his Ecuadorian protectors has deteriorated over the years. He has had spats over Internet access and even faced criminal charges for hacking into the embassy’s computer system.
On Wednesday, WikiLeaks officials held a press conference where the group’s editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said that Assange’s meetings with lawyers and a doctor had been secretly filmed by Ecuadorian authorities.
In a tweet, the organization posted a photo of Assange with the words: “This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian.”
Ecuador’s president says his government withdrew asylum status for Assange and cited “repeated violations of international conventions and daily-life protocols.”
Lenin Moreno announced the “sovereign decision” in a statement accompanied by a video on Twitter on Thursday.
“The discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of his allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties” meant the situation is “unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said.
Moreno said he’d wrung a guarantee from the U.K. that Assange wouldn’t be extradited to a “country where he would face torture or the death penalty,” according to a transcript of the video message.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange “is no hero and no one is above the law.”