The internet is flooded with the news of Julian Assange arrest in London.
Soon after Ecuador president announced the withdrawal of the political asylum provided to Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange, UK police were quick enough to drag Assange out of Ecuador embassy in London to arrest him. For six years Assange was cloistered in the embassy to avoid the arrest in sexual charges levied against him by the Sweden police. The case, however, was eventually closed but Assange is arrested for failing to surrender to the court, UK police have confirmed.
The repeated violations of international conventions forced Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno to withdraw its asylum provided to Assange since 2012.
However, Moreno’s decision to withdraw his asylum came with a condition that provides some relief to Assange; The president has clarified that Assange will never be extradited to any country where he could possibly face the death penalty or torture.
“I asked Great Britain the guarantee that Mr Assange will not be extradited to any country in which he could suffer torture or face the death penalty,” President Lenin Moreno said in a video message posted on social media.
He clarified that the decision to withdraw the provided asylum to Assange was only taken after the written confirmation from the British government.
Blaming Assange for the situation, Moreno explained that the decision to withdraw the asylum is taken only after the repeated violation by Assange. For long, there was a debate over the activities Wikileaks founder could and could not perform in the embassy.
The Ecuadorean president also said that Assange repeatedly intervened into the internal affairs of the state and didn’t pay heed to the warnings given to him by the authorities in the past.
The arrest of Assange took place a day after Wikileaks claimed to uncover an extensive spying operation against the company’s co-founder at the Ecuador embassy.
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
Assange kept refuting the rape allegation, which was later dropped as well. But he skipped the bail in 2012 as he feared extradition to the US for publishing US secrets on Wikileaks.com.
If you are curious to know more about the Assange who made the US authorities run from pillar to post for challenging the world’s superpower through Wikileaks, here are few unknown but interesting facts about Julian Assange and Wikileaks – you must know.
