Latest | London Judge Michael Snow has found Assange guilty of breaching his bail at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after Assange appeared in a courtroom packed with supporters. Assange faces a sentence of up to one year for the conviction and has serious charges pending in the United States.
Assange has been arrested in relation to a US extradition request for "conspiracy with Chelsea Manning" for publishing Iraq War Logs, Cablegate, Afghan War Logs, precisely the persecution for which he was granted asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention in 2012. @unhumanrights pic.twitter.com/i0TezO3SdK
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Assange’s defense hinges on the fact that he cannot expect a fair trial in British courts as the U.K.’s intends to “secure his delivery” to the United States.
The U.S. Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Assange with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into classified government computers on Thursday after Assange was taken into custody in London in connection with a U.S. extradition request, as well as for breaching U.K. bail conditions in 2012. His lawyer has previously said that Assange planned to fight any U.S. charges against him.
Watch | Julian Assange’s legal team make a statement following his arrest
The indictment accuses Assange of assisting Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, in cracking a password that helped Manning infiltrate Pentagon computers.
According to Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald, the U.S. Department of Justice indictment of Assange relates to Wikileaks’ publishing of U.S. war logs and diplomatic cables and is unrelated to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Greenwald called the indictment a “huge attack on press freedom.”
The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution – beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents – is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish. Journalists do this with sources constantly: it's the criminalization of journalism pic.twitter.com/GXNjWlkFZw
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
Shadowproof Journalist Kevin Gosztola noted on Twitter that the language of the indictment contains the same words typically seen in Espionage Act charge. He said, “Prosecutors are clearly accusing Assange of aiding and abetting espionage, but they’re trying to do it within charge for computer crime.”
Here’s section from Count One of indictment against Julian Assange. The language contains the same words typically seen in Espionage Act charge. Prosecutors are clearly accusing Assange of aiding and abetting espionage, but they’re trying to do it within charge for computer crime pic.twitter.com/eNdk4aGKaH
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) April 11, 2019
The full indictment can be read below:
Assange Indictment (1) by on Scribd
Initially, Sweden’s Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren said, “we have not been able to decide on the available information” whether a stalled investigation into alleged sexual offenses against Julian Assange could be reopened if he returns to Sweden before the statute of limitations lapses in August 2020, but hours later following Assange’s appearance in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Swedish prosecutors reopened their preliminary investigation into allegations of rape against Assange after a lawyer for one of the alleged victims requested that Swedish prosecutors revisit the case. The prosecutors’ office has affirmed that the case against Assange will be reopened but did not give a deadline for the probe.
Assange's Swedish accuser asks for sex assault case to be reopened in Sweden https://t.co/26H4tI4kKt
— Nordic News (@Nordic_News) April 11, 2019
A senior member of Germany’s opposition Left party says Europe must not allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States for trial. Sevim Dagdelen said in a statement that the withdrawal of Assange’s political asylum by Ecuador and his subsequent arrest by British police was a “scandal, a violation of international law, and at the same time a severe blow to independent journalism.” She says it is the German government’s “duty” now to prevent Britain, which earlier Thursday was granted an extension to its departure from the European Union, from extraditing Assange to the U.S., “where he faces life imprisonment or even the death penalty for exposing U.S. war crimes.”
Bolivian president, Evo Morales, also condemned the detention of Assange, tweeting:
We strongly condemn the detention of #JulianAssange and the violation of freedom of speech. Our solidarity is with this brother who is persecuted by the US government for bringing to light its human rights violations, murders of civilians and diplomatic espionage #FreeJulian pic.twitter.com/ls3PWBMSeq
— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) April 11, 2019
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday the way Assange was treated gave “the full impression of an open and rude disregard for the human dignity of the arrested.” She said: Russia hopes “all the rights of Julian Assange will be respected.”
The UK Home Shadow Secretary Diane Abbot on Assange took to Twitter to defend Assage’s leak of U.S. war files and diplomatic cables, saying,”states don’t have the right to kill willy-nilly. Whistle blowers do us all a service.” In a separate tweet, Abbot said, “only need look at Chelsea Manning to see what awaits Assange. She’s indefinitely detained for refusing to expose whistle-blowers. And US officials have already deemed Assange guilty.”
This is what Julian Assange and Wikileaks are 'guilty' of, exposing the murderous outcome of the US military assault on Iraq. States don't have the right to kill willy-nilly. Whistle blowers do us all a service https://t.co/9bFhzgKf89
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 11, 2019
The UK’s Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon hinted that Assange’s release of information related to U.S. killing of civilians in Iraq was the motivation behind his arrest.
This shocking video from Iraq, revealed by WikiLeaks, showing the killing of civilians and Reuters journalists provides some context to today’s moves towards extraditing Julian Assange to the USA. pic.twitter.com/GQwg0Spbz6
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) April 11, 2019
The ACLU has slammed the U.S. prosecution of Assange. Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, issued the following comment in response:
Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks’ publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations. Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public’s interest.”
Journalists right’s advocates have also come out in defense of Assange, warning of the dangerous precedent the moves against him sets. The center for investigative journalism released a statement saying in part, “Any attempt to extradite #Assange to the United States for prosecution under the deeply flawed cudgel of the Espionage Act 1917, is an attack on all of us.”
.@Wikileaks is a publisher. Charges now brought in connection with its material, or any attempt to extradite #Assange to the United States for prosecution under the deeply flawed cudgel of the Espionage Act 1917, is an attack on all of us. CIJ Statement https://t.co/UKE2OihVow
— CIJ (@cijournalism) April 11, 2019
Britain’s National Union of Journalists also released a statement, calling the actions of authorities “shocking” and saying the UK “should not be working on behalf of the Trump administration.”
"The NUJ is shocked & concerned by the actions of the authorities today in relation to Julian Assange… The UK should not be acting on behalf of the Trump administration" said #NUJ assistant general secretary. Full statement – https://t.co/98RC1FOTNP @suigenerisjen @wikileaks
— NUJ (@NUJofficial) April 11, 2019
Earlier | London Metropolitan Police arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday after Ecuador revoked the political asylum that had given him sanctuary for almost seven years following a deluge of pressure by the United States and Britain.
London police said they were invited into the embassy by Ecuador’s ambassador. Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 after he was released on bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations that he has always denied and that have since been dropped.
Assange has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for Wikileaks’ role in publishing thousands of embarrassing government secrets and was an important figure in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe as investigators examined how WikiLeaks obtained emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and Democratic groups.
Video posted online by Ruptly showed several men in suits carrying Assange out of the embassy building and loading him into a police van while uniformed British police officers formed a passageway.
BREAKING: #Assange removed from embassy – video pic.twitter.com/qsHy7ZVPg5
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) April 11, 2019
Assange sported a full beard and slicked-back grey hair and allegedly carried a copy of Gore Vidal’s History of the National Security State in his hands. The Wikileaks founder can also be heard shouting something as he is being dragged into the police van, but there is some debate about what he said. Wikileaks claims he was shouting “the UK must resist this attempt by the Trump administration.”
Everyone is asking what Julian is holding. It’s Gore Vidal's History of the National Security State. pic.twitter.com/EKrveYKhgm
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) April 11, 2019
He was taken to a London police station and will be brought to Westminster Magistrates’ Court, according to his mother, Christine Assange.
I have just spoken to one of Julians lawyers.
Julian is likely to appear before a UK Magistrate within 24 hrs re (old defunct) "bail warrant"
UK likely to seek max prison term of 12 months in higher court.
Our focus is as always to STOP a U.S. Extradition!
Let's get to it!
— Mrs. Christine Assange (@AssangeMrs) April 11, 2019
Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, said his government made a “sovereign decision” to revoke Assange’s political asylum due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life.” The moves came not long after the government of Ecuador accused Wikileaks of publishing embarrassing and potentially incriminating information on Moreno in a trove of documents referred to as the INA Papers.
“Today I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said in a video released on Twitter. In the video, Moreno declared his Assange’s asylum “unsustainable and no longer viable” accused him of repeatedly violated “clear cut provisions of the conventions of on diplomatic asylum.”
In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/pZsDsYNI0B
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019
Moreno lashed out against Assange again on Thursday evening, calling him a “miserable hacker” and “spoiled brat” who was disrespectful to officials charged with taking care of him at the country’s embassy in London. He then went on to repeat unproven allegations that Assange was smearing of his own fecal matter on the walls of the embassy building and said that was a sign of how the WikiLeaks founder viewed Ecuador as an insignificant, third-rate country.
“When you’re given shelter, cared for and provided food you don’t denounce the owner of the house,” said Moreno at an event outside Quito. He added that Ecuador will “be more careful in giving asylum to people who are really worth it and not miserable hackers whose only goal is to destabilize governments.”
Ecuador says that as part of its decision to expel Julian Assange from its embassy in London, it has withdrawn the Ecuadorian citizenship he was granted last year in a failed attempt to end the activist’s tumultuous stay at its diplomatic mission.
Ecuador also accused supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers of attempting to destabilize their country.
Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said in Quito a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had traveled with former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino this year to several countries, including Peru, Spain and Venezuela, in an attempt to undermine the government. She did not identify the individual but said their name, as well as two Russian hackers working in Ecuador, would be turned over to judicial authorities.
Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa accused the nation’s current leader of retaliating against Julian Assange for WikiLeaks’ publication of documents that could implicate President Lenin Moreno in corruption. Correa — who led the South American nation when Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy — said Thursday that the decision to revoke asylum is “cowardly.”
In a stream of remarks on Twitter, Correa criticized Moreno for allowing British authorities to arrest Assange, and linked that to WikiLeaks’ disclosure about an offshore bank account allegedly linked to Moreno’s family and friends. Correa said the decision “will never been forgotten by all of humanity.”
The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed the British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange.Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget. https://t.co/XhT51MA6c6
— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 11, 2019
Wikileaks accused Ecuador of illegally terminating Assange’s asylum, adding that the Ecuadorian ambassador invited police inside the embassy to take Assange into custody and that Ecuadorian embassy officials denied the United Nations access to Assange in the weeks prior to his arrest.
UN releases damning timeline showing that it started investigation into Ecuador for violating Assange's rights, asked Ecuador to see him, wasn't able to.
Ecuador then denounced @WikiLeaks for reporting on its President's #INAPapers corruption scandal https://t.co/FkjHuVEW6G pic.twitter.com/xh8ONu6JPo
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 6, 2019
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
UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial executions, Agnes Callamard, said that in “expelling Assange from the Embassy” and allowing his arrest, it had taken Mr. Assange “one step closer to extradition”. She added that the UK had now arbitrarily-detained the controversial anti-secrecy journalist and campaigner, “possibly endangering his life”.
Arrest of Wikileaks' Assange in UK takes him a step closer to poss extradition to US, and potential "serious human rights violations", warn @UNHumanRights experts.https://t.co/g5rzBX8YnZ
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) April 11, 2019
His lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said in tweet that he had been arrested for breaching his bail conditions and in relation to a U.S. extradition request. The U.S. warrant was apparently delivered in December 2017, meaning U.S prosecutors likely played a key role in Assange’s arrest.
Just confirmed: #Assange has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request. @wikileaks @khrafnsson
— Jen Robinson (@suigenerisjen) April 11, 2019
From #Assange: The US warrant was issued in December 2017 and is for conspiracy with Chelsea Manning @xychelsea in early 2010.
— Jen Robinson (@suigenerisjen) April 11, 2019
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed criminal complaint against Assange, though no details have been publicly announced.
WikiLeaks quickly drew attention to U.S. interest in Assange.
“Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to de-humanize, de-legitimize and imprison him,” said in a tweet over a photo of Assange’s smiling face.
Assange had not come out of the embassy for almost seven years because he feared arrest and extradition to the United States for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. Although Sweden has dropped the sexual assault case that first led to Assange’s arrest in Britain, U.K. authorities said he would be rearrested if he ever left the embassy because he skipped bail in the original case.
Last week, a UN envoy on torture warned against the termination of Assange’s asylum, telling Ecuador that Assange could have torture at hands of U.S. officials if he were extradited to the United States.
Assange’s arrest came a day after WikiLeaks accused Ecuador’s government of an “extensive spying operation” against Assange. WikiLeaks claims that meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed. The organization said in a tweeted statement that Ecuador illegally terminated Assange’s political asylum “in violation of international law.”
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
Following his arrest on Thursday, an independent U.N. human rights expert said that Assange’s arrest would not deter efforts to determine if the privacy rights of the WikiLeaks founder were violated, ostensibly by the Ecuadorian government who is accused of recording Assange and handing those recording to U.S. intelligence agencies.
UN Special Rapporteur Joe Cannataci had planned to travel to London on April 25 to meet with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange sought asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. Cannataci says he still plans to keep the meeting despite Assange’s arrest at the embassy on Thursday.
Cannataci said in a statement: “I will visit him and speak to him in a police station or elsewhere in the U.K. where Cannataci in a statement. He says the U.N. human rights office plans to ask the British government to give him access to Assange on April 25. And if Assange is extradited to the United States by then, Cannataci said “then I will direct my request for access to the government of the United States.”
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.”
Wikileaks is asking supporters to donate to help Assange pay his legal fees as he readies for long and complicated trial and put blame on the CIA for orchestration his arrest.
URGENT: Julian Assange has been arrested by UK police.
DONATE:https://t.co/vvbZBOgCwL
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
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 pic.twitter.com/dVBf1EcMa5
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who leaked classified information about U.S. surveillance programs, says the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a blow to media freedom.
“Images of Ecuador’s ambassador inviting the UK’s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of–like it or not–award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books,” Snowden said in a tweet.
He also beseeched journalists covering the story not to overlook United Nations rulings on Assange, which include calls for his release.
Important background for journalists covering the arrest of Julian #Assange by Ecuador: the United Nations formally ruled his detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human rights. They have repeatedly issued statements calling for him to walk free–including very recently. pic.twitter.com/fr12rYdWUF
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
“Assange’s critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom.”
Snowden was charged by the United States in 2013 of violating the country’s espionage act. He was granted asylum by Russia that year and the asylum has been extended until at least 2020.
Top photo | Julian Assange gestures as he arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. (Victoria Jones | PA via AP
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