By Agency Report
LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after they were invited into the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been holed up since 2012.
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said.
Police said they arrested Assange after being “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government’s withdrawal of asylum.”
The Latest on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London (all times local):
11:15 a.m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says Russia wants Julian Assange’s rights to be observed following his arrest.
Shortly after Assange’s arrest in London, Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he could not comment on the overall case.
But, he said, “We of course hope that all of his rights will be observed.”
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11 a.m.
Ecuador’s president says his government withdrew asylum status for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange almost seven years after he sought refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London, citing “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.
Assange hasn’t left the embassy since August 2012 for fear that if he steps off Ecuador’s diplomatic soil he would be arrested and extradited to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
London police arrested Assange at the embassy Thursday on a court warrant issued in 2012, when he failed to surrender to the court.
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.”
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10:45 a.m.
Police in London say they’ve arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian 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.”
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. (AP/Reuters)
