Julian Assange arrested by British police at Ecuadorean embassy

[david555]

Just now, Brigand said:

Inevitable that he would be arrested eventually. Let's see what happens and where he ends up ... then I'll cast my judgement on this episode.

Keep an eye on any quit remote airfield in U.K. until a small private Jet from "The company" lands, and pick him up ….????

[DaRoadrunner]

3 minutes ago, chanangrak said:

Assange tried to educate the world about how corrupt governments are......

And this is the real reason they want him. He told it how it is.

[KiChakayan]

1 hour ago, SpaceKadet said:

So now we are just waiting for US to ask for Julian's extradition. Or it might have already been agreed, that as soon as the British police has Julian, he will be handed over.....

Indeed, the Thais have Thainathorn we have Assange, why do we always try to dim the shining lights of humanity.

[batata]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

So they arrested him even after the rape charges were dropped..looks like he is on the way to USA 

they use to call it freedom of speech or freedom of opinion..... all good things (sooner or later) have an end

[CGW]

23 minutes ago, malagateddy said:

But we all know how corrupt govts globally operate

Do we? they seem to go after anyone that lets us know what they are up too & some seem to rejoice in that and find it all very amusing ???? 

[malagateddy]

Well.I only need to cast my mind back to my own home country..the UK..the last 50 years have been rather inglorious for many things imo
Cheers

Do we? they seem to go after anyone that lets us know what they are up too & some seem to rejoice in that and find it all very amusing [emoji846] 

Sent from my SM-G7102 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Rimmer]

An inflammatory post and a reply have been removed

[stevenl]

2 hours ago, SpaceKadet said:

So now we are just waiting for US to ask for Julian's extradition. Or it might have already been agreed, that as soon as the British police has Julian, he will be handed over.....

Already happened.

 

[Basil B]

Solicitor acting for one of the Swedish women he aledgedly rapped is to ask the Swedish Police to reopen the case.

[RickBradford]

2 hours ago, JAG said:

suppose that if the USA asks for him, it will drag through the courts for quite some time. He will be kept in custody, no way will he get bail!

It took the UK 8 years of legal wrangling to get rid of the terrorist Abu Hamzah, who was also wanted by US authorities, so let's see if there is equal justice before the law for Mr. Assange.

[Loaded]

He did look old though, didn't he?

[snoop1130]

Frail-looking Assange arrested in London after seven years in Ecuador embassy

By Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van after was arrested by British police outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Britain April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

 

LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy on Thursday after his South American hosts abruptly revoked his seven-year asylum, paving the way for his possible extradition to the United States.

 

An agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and a white beard was carried out of the embassy by at least seven men to a waiting police van.

 

"Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador," British police said.

 

Police said they arrested Assange after being invited into the embassy following the Ecuadorean government's withdrawal of asylum. Police later added that Assange had been arrested a second time after an extradition request from the United States.

 

The arrests, after nearly seven years holed up in a few cramped rooms at the embassy, mark one of the most peculiar turns in a tumultuous life that has transformed the Australian programmer into a rebel wanted by the United States.

 

Assange's supporters said Ecuador had betrayed him at the behest of Washington, that the termination of his asylum was illegal and that they feared he would ultimately end up on trial in the United States.

 

To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined U.S. security.

 

WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

 

Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

 

It was not immediately clear what specifically prompted Ecuador to end Assange's stay in the embassy, or the extent of the diplomacy that led to the arrest. The Kremlin said it hoped his rights would not be violated.

 

YEARS OF SOLITUDE

 

Assange in June 2012 took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.

 

Sweden dropped that investigation in 2017, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London.

 

Friends of Assange said the solitude he had experienced in the embassy had hurt him most.

 

"It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well," said Vaughan Smith, a friend who visited Assange. "The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude."

 

"He was very tough, but the last year in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him."

 

WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated his political asylum in violation of international law.

 

Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life.

 

Moreno said Assange's diplomatic asylum status had been cancelled for repeated violation of conventions. He said he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to any country where he might face torture or the death penalty.

 

"The British government has confirmed it in writing," Moreno said. "The asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable."

 

UNITED STATES?

 

The United States has always been reticent about the legal case against Assange, and there were no immediate details on what charges the U.S. extradition request related to.

 

Due to a clerical error, a document filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia in an unrelated 2018 investigation revealed that Assange had secretly been indicted by U.S. authorities.

 

Prosecutors have acknowledged the authenticity of the document but have refused to confirm or deny that Assange has been criminally charged under U.S. federal law.

 

The U.S. Department of State said it was aware of reports of Assange's arrest but deferred questions on his extradition to the Department of Justice, which did not respond to queries.

 

Britain said no man was above the law.

 

"Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

 

"It's not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorean embassy, it's actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorean embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them."

 

A Swedish lawyer representing the alleged rape victim said she would push to have prosecutors reopen the investigation.

 

But Sven-Erik Alhem, a retired senior prosecutor and chairman of NGO Victim Support Sweden, said he thought that may be difficult.

 

"I'd think it would be fairly uphill to reopen the investigation, mainly because testimonies usually weaken with time and it's now been 10 years. On top of that, the statute of limitation is drawing near," he said.

 

Assange was taken into custody and later pictured in the back of a van leaving a London police station in handcuffs with his thumb up. He is due to be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-11

[metisdead]

An off topic trolling post has been removed. 

[SheungWan]

If it wasn't for the cat crapping everywhere Assange would still be in there. The cat obviously a CIA plant sent in. Inside job that paid off.

[snoop1130]

Explainer: Assange arrested in London after seven-year refuge in embassy

 

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange demonstrate in front of presidential palace regarding his Ecuadorian citizenship, in Quito, Ecuador, October 31, 2018, REUTERS/Daniel Tapia - RC181D6CE850/File Photo/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador withdrew his asylum which had allowed him to take refuge in the country's embassy in London since 2012.

 

WHO IS JULIAN ASSANGE?

 

An Australian-born computer hacker who has spent much of his life on the road, Assange, 47, says he is a champion of free speech. He founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and it published secret official information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, infuriating the United States and other countries.

 

Assange's supporters see him as a hero who challenges censorship and champions transparency. Others say he risked security by revealing secret documents.

 

WHY WAS HE IN ECUADOR'S EMBASSY IN LONDON?

 

In November 2011, London's High Court said Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes after accusations by two former WikiLeaks volunteers in 2010.

 

After losing an appeal, Assange took refuge in the embassy in June 2012 as a way to avoid being extradited. In August of that year he was granted political asylum by the anti-American left-wing former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa.

 

He remained there after Sweden dropped the investigation against him in 2017 because Assange feared the United States wanted to prosecute him.

 

Sweden's then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said in 2017 that the Swedish probe could be reopened should the situation change.

 

WHY DID ECUADOR CHANGE ITS MIND ABOUT ASSANGE?

 

In 2017 elections, Correa was replaced as Ecuadorean president by Lenin Moreno. Although he had been Correa's vice-president for six years, the two fell out and Moreno has since moved Ecuador's foreign policy to a more U.S.-friendly stance.

 

He has been openly critical of Assange in recent months, calling him an inherited problem and accusing him of violating the rules of his asylum.

 

WHAT SECRETS DID WIKILEAKS REVEAL?

 

In July 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 91,000 documents, most of them secret U.S. military reports about the war in Afghanistan. In October of that year, it released another 400,000 classified military files chronicling the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009.

 

HAS THE UNITED STATES SAID IT WILL SEEK HIS EXTRADITI0N?

 

Due to a clerical mistake, a document filed by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, in an unrelated investigation last year, revealed that Assange had secretly been indicted by U.S. authorities.

 

Prosecutors have acknowledged the authenticity of the document but have refused to either confirm or deny that Assange has been criminally charged under U.S. federal law.

 

WHAT HAS ECUADOR SAID SINCE THE ARREST?

 

Ecuador's Moreno said the South American country had complied with its duties to Assange under international law and said Wikileaks repeatedly violated the rules of his asylum, including a provision which was meant to stop him intervening in the internal matters of other countries.

 

A leak of Vatican documents in 2019 was the most recent example of Assange violating that policy, Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter.

 

Ecuador has "reached the limit of its patience" with Assange, Moreno said, accusing him of installing "electronic distortion equipment", blocking security cameras, mistreating guards and accessing embassy files without permission.

 

"I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty," Moreno said. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules."

 

WHAT HAS THE UNITED KINGDOM SAID SINCE THE ARREST?

 

"Julian Assange is no hero. He has hidden from the truth for years and years. It is right that his future should be decided in the British judicial system," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Sky News after the arrest.

 

Junior foreign minister Alan Duncan thanked Ecuador for paving the way for Assange's arrest by withdrawing his asylum after "extensive dialogue" between London and Quito.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-11

[Carib]

Since when has the UK become the number one US lapdog? 

[Basil B]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I hope he sues that woman who said she had consensual sex with him, and then she said he raped her, and then she had consensual sex with him again.

As I understand one or both women had consensual sex, on the agreement that he wore a condom, the allegation is he did not, and in Sweden that constitutes rape. 

 

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Please have some sympathy for the cat.

I do, I would not like to have been looked up with him for years.

 

3 hours ago, SpaceKadet said:

So now we are just waiting for US to ask for Julian's extradition. Or it might have already been agreed, that as soon as the British police has Julian, he will be handed over.....

No. there will be propper extradition charges.

 

 

2 hours ago, CGW said:

You have lost me "common criminal" what did he do?

Skip bail pending extradition for Rape, High Treason, espenarge.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, batata said:

they use to call it freedom of speech or freedom of opinion..... all good things (sooner or later) have an end

Do you mean compromising the national intelligence services many countries where free speech is allowed for a puppet master in a country where it is not?

 

[Tug]

Wonder if Donald and his crew are nervous he had dirt on many people but I don’t know if his russan masters will allow him to turn states evidence 

[Basil B]

Wonder if the US extradition charges get dropped by an executive order direct from 1600 pennsylvania Avenue...

[Cat ji]

32 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

"Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

Typical...jobs-worth puppet.  ...With that touch of Orwellian/1984.  Actually "Great Britain" has hidden from the truth - or hidden the truth - for many more years.

[losworld]

Assange is a man who searched for the truth, found it and then released it to the public.  As George Orwell said "in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". 

[losworld]

26 minutes ago, Tug said:

Wonder if Donald and his crew are nervous he had dirt on many people but I don’t know if his russan masters will allow him to turn states evidence 

Russsian masters where is the proof for this?  CNN lol

[Cat ji]

44 minutes ago, Carib said:

Since when has the UK become the number one US lapdog? 

 

41 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Since around the time of the Suez War old boy.

 

Since 1945, Yalta Conference end-of-war negotiations between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. The terms of the financial loan/s were quite onerous, apparently Churchill had to accept some terms he would otherwise probably have argued against. Arranged by the US Sec. of State. 

 

[Basil B]

Justice 2 - Bail Skipper 0

 

A good day for justice the other bail skipping scumbag Jack Shephard extradited back to the UK.

 

Quote

A man who killed a woman in a speedboat crash has been jailed for an extra six months for fleeing the country.

Jack Shepherd fled before he was sentenced to six years for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown, who died in the crash on the River Thames.

He returned to the UK on Wednesday night after 10 months on the run.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47892602

[Cat ji]

8 minutes ago, losworld said:

Russsian masters where is the proof for this?  CNN lol

Quite pathetic. An illustration of the power of media. While the powers-that-be are agitating the media to talk about "fake news" on internet media, they are making full use of it themselves, of course.

[Basil B]

[CGW]

31 minutes ago, Cat ji said:

Typical...jobs-worth puppet.  ...With that touch of Orwellian/1984.  Actually "Great Britain" has hidden from the truth - or hidden the truth - for many more years.

Quite obviously judging by the responses on here people would prefer to be protected from the truth, or should I say "fake news" next we will have the usual brigade stating that now they will have definite proof that Trump colluded with those dam Russians, they have exhausted every other means!

[cbtstorm]

Assange will be out after trial for "computer hacking".

he has maintained that his  data origin is not from russians.

if he can show the data origin trace to be not from a hack, then he is not guilty of hacking. 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy

 

 

[Basil B]

12 minutes ago, cbtstorm said:

Assange will be out after trial for "computer hacking".

he has maintained that his  data origin is not from russians.

if he can show the data origin trace to be not from a hack, then he is not guilty of hacking. 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy

 

 

Quote

The US Department of Justice said in a statement that the extradition was in connection with federal charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, relating to the Chelsea Manning revelations. They carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47891737

The charge relates to conspiracy, as long as the Americans can provide evidence that he had communications with Chelsea Manning before or during the time CM stole US classified documents I am sure that will good enough to extradite him to the US.

[heybruce]

Don't these events make it make clear that Assange initially fled Sweden because he knew the rape charges were legitimate and he would be convicted?  Not, as he claimed, because he feared extradition to the US. 

 

After being charged with rape in Sweden Assange fled to England.  When Sweden attempted to have him arrested in England, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy, claiming the rape charges were really a ploy to have him extradited to the US.

 

I've commented in the past about the absurdity of fleeing Sweden to the UK, a country with a long history of accommodating extradition requests to the US.  Shortly after being arrested by London police, Assange was charged in relation to an extradition request from the US.

 

If Assange did genuinely flee Sweden because he thought he would be safer from extradition to the US in the UK, he really is a world class moron.  Maybe that will be his defense in court:  "I'm too stupid to do the things I'm accused of!"