Julian Assange apparently wore out his welcome at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Ecuador actually invited police to come in and arrest Assange after they revoked his political asylum, noting his hostile and threatening behavior.
Watch video of Assange being taken out of the embassy:
Here’s more:
NY POST – Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy kicking and screaming Thursday as British police arrested him on both UK and US warrants.
“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 in a statement.
Dramatic video shows several officers pulling Assange out of the building, as he yells,” “The UK has no stability!”
Assange — sporting an overgrown gray beard — was busted after police were “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum,” authorities said.
His lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, tweeted that Assange “has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request.”
US Warrant
She explained that a US warrant was issued in December 2017 and is related to his alleged conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who leaked a slew of classified materials to Wikileaks, in early 2010.
The UK warrant is related to bail jumping in 2012 when he sought political asylum at the Ecuador embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden, which was probing him on rape allegations.
Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station, where he will remain before facing prosecution before Westminister Magistrates’ Court as soon as possible, police said.
Why Ecuador terminated their asylum…
In a tweet, Wikileaks said, “Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago.”
Ecuador President Lenin Moreno said his government withdrew Assange’s political asylum status over his “repeated violations of international conventions and daily-life protocols.”
“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 Thursday.
And now the US has announced charges against Assange:
BREAKING: US announces charge against Julian Assange, accusing him of helping Chelsea Manning break into classified computers.
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 11, 2019
UPDATE:
Here’s more on the charges from the DOJ:
Julian P. Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.
According to court documents unsealed today, the charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.
The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures.
During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange. The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information. During an exchange, Manning told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”
Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.