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Julian Assange arrested by UK police

London Metropolitan Police Service announces arrest WikiLeaks' founder arrest.

 
 
assange-cop.jpg

Julian Assange speaking from the window of the Ecuadorean Embassy, London

UK police officers arrested today Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks project that for years leaked state secrets from governments all over the world. London's Metropolitan Police Service announced the arrest minutes ago.

"Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador, Hans Crescent, SW1 on a warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates' Court on 29 June 2012, for failing to surrender to the court," Met Police said in a short statement.

 

Assange has now been taken from Ecuador's embassy and is now at a central London police station. Met Police said Assange will be arraigned before Westminster Magistrates' Court "as soon as is possible."

 

Assange had been living inside Ecuador's embassy building in London since August 2012, when he applied for political asylum with the Ecuadorian government.

The British government has been in talks with the Ecuadorian government since Jule 2018 to have Assange's asylum protection withdrawn. This happened today, police said, making the arrest possible.

 

UK police has been seeking to arrest Assange since August 2012, when he skipped an appearance in court and breached his bail conditions. At the time, Assange was fighting his extradition from the UK to Sweden, where police was investigating the WikiLeaks founder in a sexual assault and rape cape. The Sweden case was closed in 2017; however, UK authorities continued to want Assange's arrest for absconding.

 

WikiLeaks has not returned a request for comment.

Developing story. Updates will follow.

 
 

 

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well, he did help Trump, that will go good for him.

Seriously though, I wonder what will happen now as the USA does still want him in a court room. This will not end good

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The AchieVer
47 minutes ago, dMog said:

This will not end good

 

Even I guess so.

 

Regards

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Russia must help him now.

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2 hours ago, dMog said:

well, he did help Trump, that will go good for him.

Seriously though, I wonder what will happen now as the USA does still want him in a court room. This will not end good

I doubt  it they put Chelsea Manning back in jail for not testifying  against Wiki Leaks  contempt of court she been in  solitary confinement since March 8 , 2019

 

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange was arrested on behalf of U.S. authorities, British police say, citing extradition warrant

 

Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s lawyer, said on Twitter that her client was “arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request.”

 

U.S. authorities have prepared an arrest warrant and extradition papers, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

 

Britain’s Home Office said in a statement that Assange “was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States,” where he is “accused . . . of computer related offences.”

 

Robinson said Assange met this morning with the Ecuadoran ambassador, who notified him that his asylum was being revoked. Then the Metropolitan Police were invited in to the embassy, where they arrested him, she said.

 

She confirmed that the U.S. indictment was issued in December 2017 on charges of conspiracy with Chelsea Manning dating to 2010. Formerly a soldier named Bradley Manning, she was imprisoned for seven years for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses after turning over hundreds of thousands of classified or sensitive military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks.

 

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1 hour ago, mclaren85 said:

Russia must help him now.

Assange should have gone to Russia.

Like what Snowden did.

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What  Snowden done want never change nothing as it all happen before and a few years latter the Government and the world   forgot about it  . He didn't tell world nothing that was not already knew about the NSA  . The passed a law  to stop the NSA in 1973 and the Government ignored it just like the ignored it when Snowden done the same thing Perry Fellwock done before him.

 

The same  with  Chelsea Manning  others told  info  about wars   before to the press  but   no one went to jail for  that but  Chelsea Manning for  taking about  it.

1971

Daniel Ellsberg, a former US military analyst and government contractor, discloses a classified government study about the Vietnam War later known as the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg’s act proved several administrations had directly lied to Congress and the public about their intentions and actions in Vietnam. This led to protests, contributed to the resignation of Nixon, and emboldened the media when the Supreme Court decided against prior restraint in New York Times Co. v. United States.

 

NSA intelligence analyst Perry Fellwock exposed secret surveillance practices in an interview with Ramparts magazine under the pseudonym Winslow Peck. Legislation was passed in 1973 to stop the NSA from spying, but later ignored.

 

https://www.whistleblower.org/timeline-us-whistleblowers/

 

Snowden was just history repeating itself but it never changes nothing  . All he did was ruin himself  for life and for what ?

 

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I feel he was stupid to have run to this embassy in the first instance.

He should have seen that for coming.

One asks one's self, why did he waste all his years there and end up in the same place?

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34 minutes ago, cosy said:

I feel he was stupid to have run to this embassy in the first instance.

He should have seen that for coming.

One asks one's self, why did he waste all his years there and end up in the same place?

He  ran there to gain political asylum because he was wanted on  a rape charge witch has now been dropped  and he was afraid  Sweden would send him to  the  USA   where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks.  I guess he figured he be in Ecuador by now  but no one  could move him because they would have arrested him  on the way to the airport . His luck ran out when Ecuador got a new president who don't like him.    No one has a crystal ball when we make stupid mistakes are  we would not make them.

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Julian Assange arrested, charged with conspiracy to hack US computers

Assange had been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.

Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at court on April 11, 2019 in London.
Enlarge / Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at court on April 11, 2019 in London.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images

British police arrested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday. He had been hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 and was arrested after the Ecuadorian government invited the Metropolitan Police Service into the embassy to remove him. Assange was initially arrested for jumping bail in 2012, but the Metropolitan Police Service subsequently announced that he had been "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities."

 

After Assange's arrest, the US Justice Department unsealed its indictment against him. The indictment focuses on Assange's role in helping Chelsea Manning steal classified information from the US military.

 

In 2010, "Assange agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Department of Defense computers," the indictment charges. Manning allegedly provided Assange with the the hash of a password and asked Assange to crack it.

 

The indictment says that the hashed password was only available to those with administrative privileges, which Manning didn't have. However, she "used special software, namely a Linux operating system, to access the computer file and obtain the portion of the password provided to Assange."

 

The government says that the password would have allowed Manning to log in to computers as an administrative user, making it easier for her to cover her tracks as she downloaded additional sensitive documents.

 

However, it seems that Assange never succeeded in cracking the password. "On or about March 10, 2010, Assange requested more information from Manning related to the password," the indictment states. "Assange indicated that he had been trying to crack the password by stating that he had 'no luck so far.'"

 

While Assange wasn't successful in cracking the password, the US government is charging him with conspiracy to hack military computers based on his attempt to do so.

 

We'll update this story as we get more information about the arrest.

 

Source: Julian Assange arrested, charged with conspiracy to hack US computers (Ars Technica)

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The AchieVer

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London, facing possible U.S. extradition

Assange guilty of bail breach

A British court found Assange guilty on Thursday afternoon of breaching the conditions of his bail, a relatively minor infraction that could bring up to a year-long prison sentence.

 

Judge Michael Snow quickly issued his verdict on Thursday after Assange appeared in the courtroom where his supporters packed the public gallery. Assange faces a sentence of up to 12 months for the conviction, in addition to the more has serious charges pending in the United States.

 

The basis of Assange's defense was that he couldn't expect a fair trial in British courts as the U.K.'s purpose was to "secure his delivery" to the United States.

Britain's Press Association quoted a U.S. government representative who was in the court on Thursday, James Hines, as saying that police had testified that Assange, "barged past them, attempting to return to his private room" when they showed up to serve their arrest warrant at the embassy.

"He was eventually arrested at 10:15 a.m. He resisted that arrest, claiming 'this is unlawful' and he had to be restrained," the court was told, according to Hines. He said Assange had resisted throughout the arrest, shouting "this is unlawful, I'm not leaving."

U.S. unseals Assange indictment

The Department of Justice unsealed its indictment of Assange on Thursday following his arrest, showing that he has been charged with computer hacking crimes for trying to illegally access "secret" materials on a U.S. government computer. The charge is officially listed as "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion."

 

The indictment accuses Assange of trying to access the secret material "with reason to believe that such information so obtained could be used to the injury of the United States and the advantage of any foreign nation."

 

The charges relate to materials stolen by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who was convicted in 2013 of leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. She had worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq and was arrested in 2010. Manning is transgender and at the time of her arrest, her name was Bradley.

 

Manning was jailed again last month for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for contempt of court in March after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she had no intention of testifying.

 

 

U.S. officials keep quiet

CBS News sought comment from U.S. law enforcement agencies on Thursday as London police confirmed they had placed Assange under arrest, in part "on behalf of the United States authorities" pertaining to an official extradition request, but the FBI, National Security Agency and Justice Department had little to say.

 

The statement by the London Metropolitan Police confirming that Assange had been "arrested in relation to an extradition warrant on behalf of the United States authorities" was the first official confirmation from either side of the Atlantic of an official extradition request.

It remained unclear what charges Assange was facing in the U.S., but a court document published in "error" last year, in an unrelated case in Virginia, suggested strongly that prosecutors had prepared charges against him under seal -- something sources would not deny to CBS News.

 

Both the Departments of Justice and State told CBS News they were aware of Assange's arrest, but referred to U.K. authorities for further information.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement that Assange was "no hero."

 

"He has hidden from the truth for years and years and it is right that his future should be decided in the British judicial system," Hunt said. "This will now be decided properly, independently by the British legal system respected throughout the world for its independence and integrity and that is the right outcome."

 

Could Swedish rape case reopen?

The lawyer for the woman who claims Assange raped her in Sweden in 2010 said in a tweet on Thursday that she and her team would "do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape. No rape victim should have to wait 9 years to see justice be served."

 

The case against Assange in Sweden was dropped by prosecutors in May 2017 -- not because of any conclusion about his guilt or innocence, but because they accepted there wasn't any reasonable chance of prosecuting him as he remained holed-up in London.

 

Lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz said it had, "understandably come as a shock to my client that what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened."

 

Assange, WikiLeaks and Russia

Ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year declared the arrest of Assange, for leaking confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, remained a priority for the Justice Department.

 

Special counsel Robert Mueller had also been investigating whether Trump campaign associates had advance knowledge of Democratic emails that were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks before the 2016 election and that U.S. authorities have said were hacked by Russia.

 

Assange's arrest, if he is indeed indicted and brought to the U.S. to face charges, could represent a significant development for ongoing congressional investigations into the Trump campaign's actions.

WikiLeaks said it was never contacted from anyone who worked on the Mueller probe, which recently concluded and handed its report to the Justice Department. Democrats are still pushing to get the full report released by Attorney General William Barr.

 

WikiLeaks, the website that says its function is to "open governments," and entities linked to the Kremlin have a relationship that goes back further than the 2016 election.

 

 

Arrest draws backlash

While Assange's leaking of classified U.S. diplomatic and security information has infuriated the U.S. government, his arrest has drawn loud cries from press freedom advocates who argue he provided the materials to journalists in the public's interest.

 

Edward Snowden, the U.S. intelligence contractor who leaked thousands of secret documents from the National Security Agency revealing the extent of the U.S. government's covert data gathering around the world, sent a tweet on Thursday noting that the United Nations has repeatedly called on the U.K. government to let Assange walk free, deeming his hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy an "arbitrary detention."

Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of--like it or not--award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books. Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom. https://t.co/ys1AIdh2FP

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) 11 April 2019

Snowden said Assange's arrest marked " a dark moment for press freedom."

The Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloir, said Thursday that, "Targeting Assange because of Wikileaks' provision of information to journalists that was in the public interest would be a punitive measure and would set a dangerous precedent for journalists or their sources that the US may wish to pursue in future."

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said Thursday in a statement released by the organization that "any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations."

 

The ACLU warned also that "prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."

Extradition to U.S.?

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had said Assange was a "free man" and could leave the embassy whenever he chose to do so, but his arrest has been long-expected, given the active U.K. warrant for his arrest for violating bail conditions.

On Thursday, London's Metropolitan Police confirmed that Assange had in fact been arrested not only for violating the terms of his bail relating to the 2012 warrant, but also "on behalf of the United States authorities" pertaining to an extradition request. It was the first official confirmation of U.S. charges and an extradition request.

 

Ecuadorian leader Lenin Moreno has said that Britain provided sufficient guarantees the WikiLeaks founder wouldn't be extradited to face the death penalty abroad.

 

But questions have been swirling about the former Australian hacker's legal fate in the U.S., where he is believed to have been indicted on sealed charges for publishing state secrets.

 

Jen Robinson, a lawyer who has represented Assange, sent a tweet on Thursday saying she had confirmed that he was arrested on charges related not only to skipping bail in Britain, but "also in relation to a US extradition request."

It still was not clear what specific charges Assange is facing in the U.S.

 

A U.S. official told CBS News justice correspondent Paula Reid recently that even with an official request filed with Britain, extradition is a lengthy process and the WikiLeaks boss wouldn't likely hit U.S. soil too quickly.

That said, Britain and the U.S. do have a fast-track extradition agreement, so the process should be easier than it would be with many other nations.

 

 

 

 

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DOJ Charges Julian Assange With Conspiracy to Hack Classified U.S. Government Computer

 

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Julian Assange has been formally charged by U.S. prosecutors for a single count of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer,” the Justice Department announced Thursday morning. 

 

Assange was dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London earlier on Thursday after spending seven years there. He now faces possible extradition to the U.S.

 

The charges, which were inadvertently made public in November 2018 during a filing error, were filed in the Eastern District of Virginia federal court. Assange is charged with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to crack the password of a U.S. Department of Defense computer that prosecutors say was connected to the government’s classified documents system known as Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet).

 

If convicted, Assange faces up to five years in prison.

 

Manning, a former U.S. Army private, used her connection to SIPRNet to download classified documents to share with WikiLeaks, according to the Justice Department, but she allegedly attempted to use a password other than her own to access the classified database. “Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her,” the DOJ writes in its press release. “Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures.”

 

Prosecutors say “Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange,” adding that the discussions “reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information.”

 

Manning ultimately provided hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents, including diplomatic cables, to Wikileaks in 2010. She spent seven years in a military prison before President Barack Obama granted her clemency in early 2017.

 

Aside from the cables, Wikileaks also published a 39-minute video from 2007 showing two U.S. Apache helicopters opening fire on a group of men. Seven people, including two journalists for Reuters, were killed in the video and American forces can be heard laughing on their headsets. The video, which WikiLeaks titled “Collateral Murder,” was leaked by Manning.

 

Manning was arrested for refusing to testify to a grand jury about the case. She was first placed in solitary confinement but has reportedly been released to a regular prison cell.

 

Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Read the full federal indictment against Assange below:

 

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Assange has reportedly been found guilty of skipping bail in 2012, despite the fact that his lawyers argued he had every reason to seek asylum and was “absolutely right” in his suspicions. Assange’s extradition hearing will take place in four weeks.

 

Anna Ardin, one of Assange’s accusers in the sexual assault case in Sweden, expressed sadness that Assange might be extradited to the United States:
 

Quote


I would be very surprised & sad if Julian is handed over to the US. For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this. Too bad my case could never be investigated properly, but it’s already been closed.

 

 

WikiLeaks will have a press conference after Assange’s hearing is completed and countless reporters have set up outside the building where Assange is being held. NBC News has a livestream on YouTube where protesters can be heard chanting to “free Assange” and “don’t shoot the messenger.”

 

Several press freedom groups expressed concerns that Assange would be extradited to the United States. The Obama administration had previously decided not to pursue charges against WikiLeaks, but the Trump regime has obviously reversed course.

 

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Wikileaks: Document dumps that shook the world

WikileaksImage copyrightEPA/GETTY IMAGES

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday at Ecuador's London embassy, where he had been granted asylum since 2012.

The United States alleges that he conspired with Chelsea Manning to access classified information on Department of Defense computers. He could be jailed for up to five years.

Since it launched in 2006, Wikileaks has become renowned for publishing thousands of classified documents covering everything from the film industry to national security and wars.

Presentational grey line

The helicopter attack

Helicopter video from WikileaksImage copyrightWIKILEAKS
Image captionHelicopter footage was posted on Wikileaks

In 2007, Wikileaks published a video from a US military helicopter showing the killing of civilians in Baghdad, Iraq.

A voice on the transmission urged the pilots to "light 'em all up" and the individuals on the street were fired at from the helicopter.

When a van arrived on the scene to pick up the wounded, it too was fired at.

Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh were both killed in the attack.

Presentational grey line

US Army Intelligence 

Wikileaks has published hundreds of thousands of documents leaked by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

Documents relating to the war in Afghanistan revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.

Chelsea Manning was jailed for the leaksImage copyrightAFP

Further documents from the Iraq war revealed that 66,000 civilians had been killed - more than previously reported. The documents also showed that prisoners had been tortured by Iraqi forces.

Among the leaks were more than 250,000 messages sent by US diplomats. They revealed that the US wanted to collect "biographic and biometric" information - including iris scans, DNA samples and fingerprints - of key officials at the UN.

 

Presentational grey line

9/11 pager messages 

About 573,000 intercepted pager messages sent during the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States were published by Wikileaks.

The messages include families checking up on their loved ones and government departments reacting to the attacks.

"President has been rerouted won't be returning to Washington but not sure where he will go," one message said.

Presentational grey line

Democrat emails

Wikileaks published thousands of hacked emails from the account of Hillary Clinton's campaign boss John Podesta, in the run-up to the US presidential election in 2016.

In the emails, Mr Podesta called Mrs Clinton's election rival Bernie Sanders a "doofus" for criticising the Paris climate change agreement.

John PodestaImage copyrightAFP

The emails also suggested that a CNN contributor tipped off the Clinton campaign about a question that was going to be asked during a debate hosted by the broadcaster.

The timing of the leaks led to accusations that Wikileaks was deliberately trying to discredit Mrs Clinton.

The site also published leaked information from Republican Sarah Palin's Yahoo email accounts in 2008.

Presentational grey line

British National Party members

In 2008, Wikileaks published the names, addresses and contact information of more than 13,000 members of the British National Party.

 

The political party's manifesto proposed banning immigration from Muslim countries and encouraging some UK residents to return to "their lands of ethnic origin".

Nick GriffinImage copyrightPA
Image captionNick Griffin, pictured in 2006

A former member was later fined £200 for the leak.

Presentational grey line

The Sony Pictures hack

A leak of more than 170,000 emails and 20,000 documents from movie studio Sony Pictures was published on Wikileaks in 2015.

 

The entertainment company suffered a cyber-attack weeks before releasing The Interview, a film that poked fun at North Korea.

 

The emails revealed that actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams received a lower fee than their male co-stars in American Hustle.

There were also messages from producers and executives insulting celebrities such as Angelina Jolie.

Leonardo DiCaprio was called "despicable" for turning down a role in a Sony Pictures film. 

 

Mr Assange said the emails were in the public interest because they showed the inner working of a multinational company and were "at the centre of a geo-political conflict".

 

 

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The AchieVer

UN torture expert warns over Assange extradition to US

 
 

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Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange protest against his arrest, near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany. Assange is not guaranteed a fair trial in the United States, a UN rights expert told AFP Friday, questioning the US justice system's credibility in national security cases.  
 
REUTERS 

[EVILARD, Switzerland] Julian Assange is not guaranteed a fair trial in the United States, a UN rights expert told AFP Friday, questioning the US justice system's credibility in national security cases.

The United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Nils Melzer, also said that the manner in which Ecuador terminated Assange's diplomatic protection broke international norms.

But Mr Melzer made clear that his greatest concerns for the WikiLeaks founder - arrested by British police on Thursday after spending almost seven years in Ecuador's London embassy - stem from Assange's possible extradition to the US.

"I'm worried about fair trial," said Mr Melzer, one of several UN rapporteurs active on the Assange case.

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Market voices on:

"I'm worried that he might be exposed to (the) detention practices of the United States, which in part are very problematic," he added.

 

"The United States in the last decade unfortunately has not proven to be a safe state with regard to the provision of torture in cases that involve national security," Mr Melzer added.

Mr Melzer has previously raised alarm about alleged torture in the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, as well as over the use of waterboarding, which President Donald Trump has labelled an effective interrogation technique.

 

The US request to extradite Assange is set to be heard in British court on May 2.

US officials have unsealed an indictment against him for computer hacking as part of his WikiLeaks whistleblowing activities.

But Mr Melzer echoed concerns that the US charge sheet could be expanded, especially if the Justice Department gets Assange on US soil.

 

The UN expert argued that regardless of one's personal view of Assange, "from a human rights perspective, he was basically doing the same thing that investigative journalists do all over the world," by publishing information that states try to conceal.

 

The national security implications of the charges, combined with the fact that the US practices the death penalty, is "obviously a very serious concern," the UN expert further said.

 

Turning to the arrest, Mr Melzer conceded that "theoretically" Ecuador had the right to terminate Assange's protection and strip his citizenship.

 

"But in a state that is governed by the rule of law, these types of steps are to be taken in a procedure that is subject to legal remedies and appeals," added Melzer, a Swiss national who also teaches international law at the University of Glasgow.

 

The "shortcuts" taken in the run up to the arrest are "very, very problematic," he said.

"The rule of law is not being respected."

Mr Melzer, like all UN special rapporteurs, is an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council who does not speak for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

 

Mr Guterres's top human rights official, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, has not condemned the arrest.

Mr Bachelet's spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the high commissioner expects "all relevant authorities to ensure that Mr Assange's right to a fair trial is upheld."

 

 

 

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‘Release Assange or else!’ Hackers Anonymous sends UK warning over Wikileaks founder

Julian Assange

Julian Assange: The An0nymous message urged the UK to release the wikileaks founder (Image: Getty/An0nymous)

HACKING organisation Anonymous has threatened to “unleash the force of the internet” on the UK Government unless it releases Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after his arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy yesterday.

 

And the shadowy organisation claimed the world was on the brink of a “revolution”, which it would spearhead. Mr Assange was arrested by British police after they were invited into the embassy, where he has been claiming asylum since 2012. The UK must now decide whether to extradite Mr Assange to the United States, where the Department for Justice wants to question him in relaxation to claims he conspired with former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to download classified databases.

 

 

The lengthy video message, posted on Facebook and delivered by an animated figure closely resembling the character V from Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta, is aimed at “the UK government and their cohorts around the world who are working to silence whistleblowers”.

The message said: “As many of you know, UK authorities have arrested Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange on behalf of the US government. 

“This is a move that has been expected for some time and Assange himself has even warned us about his impending arrest. 

“This arrest and the greater persecution of Wikileaks and other whistleblowers sends a clear message that these governments will stop at nothing to maintain their secrecy.

“After exposing Hillary Clinton, Assange was labeled as a Russian asset, although there is no evidence to support these claims.”

Instead, the message described Mr Assange as “a true journalist who speaks truth to power and exposes corruption whether it is on the left or the right”.

It added: “Influential people representing the governments of the UK, the United States, and Ecuador have all signed off on this unprecedented attack on journalism. 

“By these actions, they are bringing the free world closer to a widespread revolution, and that is honestly what may be needed to stop these constant advances on our freedom.

 

 

                   Julian Assange

 
 
Julian Assange: The wikileaks founder is driven off in a police van (Image: GETTY)

“This should be a peaceful revolution that is waged across many battlefields, including cyberspace, the domain of An0nymous.

“Every single powerful person who has signed off on this order should be shaking in their boots, because the force of the internet is about to be unleashed upon them.

“All the way from the CIA, the President of the United States, and down to the arresting officers that carried Assange out of the embassy, you have all exposed yourselves as enemies of the people and it is time for An0nymous to act accordingly.”

In a clear reference to the Yellow Vests currently plaguing French President Emmanuel Macron, it added: “Street protests are sometimes seen as a wasted effort, but the current revolution brewing in France and other parts of the developed world show us that the governments can bend to the will of the people.”

 

                  Julian Assange

 
 
Julian Assange: The arrest of the wikileaks founder has sparked protests (Image: GETTY)

The message called on “the people of the UK” to come to Mr Assange’s rescue and prevent his extradition.

It added: “If protests that rival the scale and intensity of the recent demonstrations in France were to sweep across the UK in response to the arrest of Assange, it could help to protect him, and possibly change the outcome of his case.”

Claiming the Australian, who is still wanted for questioning about a rape allegation in Sweden, was “well loved by the people of the world”, it said: “Unfortunately, the establishment does not feel the same, so this is a warning for the establishment: Let Assange free or you will pay!

"The time has come for us to unite, the time has come for us to stand up and fight! We are Anonymous! We are Legion! We do not forgive! We do not forget! Expect us!”

 

 

 

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Julian Assange isn't the best skateboarder, embassy footage reveals

The Wikileaks founder spent at least part of his time in the Ecuadorian embassy in London learning new moves but footage shows he has a long way to go.

 
assange

Julian Assange works on a new hobby while holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

El Pais video screenshot by Eric Mack / CNET

What does a wanted man do when he's stuck inside the Ecuadorian embassy for nearly seven years? If you're Julian Assange, apparently you strip down to your singlet and shred on your skateboard for anyone willing to watch -- and for security cameras. 

Seems he's been passing the years by causing a bit of trouble and sometimes just trying to shred like Tony Hawk ... if Tony Hawk were confined to a really small room and never learned to skateboard well at all.   

 

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