Julian Assange Has Been Arrested After Nearly Seven Years in the Ecuadorian Embassy

The WikiLeaks founder was seen being forcibly removed and shouting, “UK must resist.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested Thursday morning, nearly seven years after he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. 

“He 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,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Police later confirmed that Assange had been “further arrested” by US authorities in relation to an extradition warrant.

The US Justice Department charged Assange with a conspiracy to commit computer hacking. “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,” a statement read. (Read the full indictment below.)

He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Law enforcement officials on Thursday were seen dragging Assange out of the building while he shouted, “They must resist! UK resist!” 

https://twitter.com/5_News/status/1116289283676090369

In a video message, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said that the government was withdrawing diplomatic asylum status to the controversial WikiLeaks founder for repeatedly “violating international conventions and protocol of coexistence.” 

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 while facing extradition to Sweden over charges of sexual assault. In his appearance before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Assange was found guilty of failing to surrender to police in June 2012 in response to the sexual assault charges.

WikiLeaks has since slammed the arrest, claiming that the Ecuadorian government had “illegally terminated” Assange’s political asylum. The group also sought donations.

This is a breaking news post. We’ll be updating as more information becomes available.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate