WIKI CONSPIRACY
WikiLeaks accuses ‘powerful actors’ including CIA of ‘sophisticated’ effort to dehumanise Julian Assange following arrest
WIKILEAKS has accused "powerful actors" including the CIA of a "sophisticated" effort to dehumanise its founder Julian Assange.
Following the 47-year-old's arrest the organisation tweeted: "This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards.
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"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"
The WikiLeaks founder was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy today by British police after spending 2,487 days in hiding.
As he was hauled from the building - looking grey and clutching Gore Vidal's History of the National Security State - he appeared to shout "The UK has no civility" and "the UK must resist".
Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.
That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the US, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks.
Today one of his accusers demanded the case be reopened.
ASSANGE DETAINED
Yesterday, Wikileaks chiefs accused spies of installing hidden cameras to watch Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
The editor-in-chief of Wikileaks Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed Assange has been the victim of an "extreme spying operation" and it is part of a €3million extortion plot.
Last week reports surfaced that the South American nation is tiring of his presence in the embassy.
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said Assange does not have the right to "hack private accounts or phones" and cannot intervene in the politics of other countries, especially those that have friendly relations with Ecuador.
Blackmailers have allegedly threatened to reveal sex secrets about Assange's life inside the embassy as part of a €3 million (£2.6 million) extortion plot.
Fidel Narvaez, the former Consul of Ecuador to London, said yesterday during a press conference: "The Ecuadorian embassy is not protecting Assange any more.
"It is doing everything possible to end the asylum.
"The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the international shame and historic shame."
Assange was arrested after cops were invited into the embassy when Ecuadorian authorities withdrew the asylum he has clung onto for seven years.
Announcing the decision today, Ecuador's president said on Twitter it came "after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols".
Wikileaks, a website which publishes classified info from anonymous sources, made the claim last week that its founder was going to be evicted in a tweet and quoted an unnamed high-level Ecuadorian government source.
Assange hasn't left the embassy since August 2012 - costing the British taxpayers more than £10m.
He feared stepping off Ecuador's diplomatic soil would see him arrested and extradited to the US for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
Scotland Yard confirmed he is being held on behalf of the US authorities, as well as for breaching his bail conditions.
Assange's lawyers have previously argued that he could face the death penalty if he was extradited to the US.
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What is WikiLeaks?
Wikileaks was set up in 2006 as an anti-secrecy organisation to allow whistleblowers to release information anonymously.
By 2015, the WikiLeaks website had published more than ten million documents including some classified as top secret.
The organisation says its purpose is "to bring important news and information to the public... so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth."
From early on it has faced fierce criticism from governments and defence and intelligence officials who accuse it of being irresponsible.
It is hosted on computer servers based in several countries around the world such as Iceland and Sweden where the law protects disclosures, putting it out of reach of efforts by US law enforcement bodies to close it down.
The US Justice Department launched a criminal probe into Wikileaks and its outspoken founder Julian Assange after the leak of diplomatic cables in 2010.
Ecuadorian President Moreno said in December that Assange could be taken into British custody if the UK guaranteed he would not be extradited to a third country where he could face the death penalty.
Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan today said he will face 'justice in the proper way in the UK' and it will be 'for the courts' to decide what happens next.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who is due to make a statement in the House of Commons on the arrest later, tweeted: "Nearly 7yrs after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK.
"I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law."
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Scotland Yard confirmed Assange will now appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as possible.
Confirming his arrest, a Met Police spokesman said: "He has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain.
"The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates' Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum."
Ecuadorian government explains its reasons following arrest of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange
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