Author: Kevin Johnson / Source: USA TODAY
Julian Assange’s lawyer says the arrest was for breach of bail and an extradition request from the U.S. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested Thursday to face a U.S. charge that he conspired to hack military computers after Ecuador’s government ended his seven years of self-imposed exile and expelled him from its London embassy.
Assange, 47, was arrested by authorities in the United Kingdom to be extradited to the United States.
In an indictment revealed Thursday morning, U.S. authorities alleged that Assange conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal and publish huge troves of classified documents. Prosecutors said Assange at one point tried to help Manning crack a password to access military computers where the secret information was stored.
Over four months in 2010, Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of secret reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as State Department cables and information about detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Manning turned the records over to WikiLeaks, which passed them to journalists and published them on the internet.
Prosecutors said it was one of the most extensive leaks of classified secrets in U.S. history.
Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The charge, delivered by a federal grand jury in March 2018 but kept secret until Thursday, carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Barry Pollack, a U.S. lawyer for Assange, criticized the arrest and said Assange would need medical treatment that had been denied for seven years.
“It is bitterly disappointing that a country would allow someone to whom it has extended citizenship and asylum to be arrested in its embassy,” Pollack said.” Once his health care needs have been addressed, the UK courts will need to resolve what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.”
Indictment: Julian Assange indictment: Read the grand jury indictment against the WikiLeaks founder
Assange had sheltered in Ecuador’s embassy since seeking asylum there in 2012. London’s Metropolitan Police moved in after Ecuador formally withdrew its asylum for Assange, an Australian native, and subsequently revoked his Ecuadorian citizenship. Plainclothes officers escorted him from the embassy on Thursday.
In a British court Thursday, Judge Michael Snow issued a guilty verdict against Assange for breaching his bail conditions. Assange, who appeared in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court where his supporters packed the public gallery, faces a sentence of up to 12 months in for the conviction.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assange’s arrest shows “no one is above the law.”
The arrest followed months of carefully orchestrated diplomatic maneuvering by the Ecuadorian government that had long soured on its relationship with Assange. In a videotaped statement, Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said his country’s patience for his behavior “has reached its limit,” citing bizarre behavior inside the embassy and violating the country’s demand that he stop interfering in the affairs of other governments.
Moreno described it as a “sovereign decision” due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily life.”
Assange was taken into custody on a 2012 warrant for jumping bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations. The Swedish accusations have since been dropped but he was still wanted for…
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