London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been holed up for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation.
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An agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and a white beard was carried out of the embassy by at least seven men to a waiting police van.
"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.
Police said they arrested Assange after being "invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum."
The arrest marks the end of one of the most peculiar turns of Assange's tumultuous life, though his supporters said Ecuador's termination of his asylum was illegal and they feared that Assange would end up in the United States.
Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.
In 2012 he took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.
Sweden dropped that investigation in 2017, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London.
US in 'extradition request'
WikiLeaks has angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical US appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.
To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech.
But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States.
Julian Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the WikiLeaks founder had been arrested on an extradition request from the United States as well as on charges of breaching his bail conditions.
In a tweet, Robinson said Assange "has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request".
The US Justice Department inadvertently revealed the existence of a sealed criminal case against Assange in a court filing last year. It's not clear what he's been accused of.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who leaked a trove of classified material to WikiLeaks, was jailed last month after she refused to testify before a grand jury.
In a statement Thursday, US Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said: "We are aware of the reports that Julian Assange was taken into custody by United Kingdom authorities."
Hero or villain?
Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life. Moreno had previously said Assange had violated the terms of his asylum.
Moreno said on Thursday that Assange's diplomatic asylum status had been cancelled for repeated violation of conventions.
He said he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.
"The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules," Moreno said. "The asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable."
Britain said no man was above the law.
"Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.
"It's not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorian embassy, it's actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorian embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them."
Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station and will be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court later.
Junior foreign minister Alan Duncan confirmed that Britain would not extradite Assange to the United States if he were to face the possibility of the death penalty there.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law.
Supporters of Assange had argued that living in the cramped conditions without access to sunlight had damaged his health.
Sweden closed its preliminary investigation into a suspected rape in 2017 as there was "no reason to believe that the decision to hand him [Assange] over to Sweden could be implemented within a reasonable timeframe".
But then chief prosecutor Marianne Ny said at the time that the probe could be reopened should the situation change.
"If he at a later time were to make himself available, I can decide to immediately resume the preliminary investigation," Ny, who has since retired, said in a 2017 statement.
The statute of limitations for rape in Sweden is 10 years, unless it is deemed to be aggravated, in which case the ability to prosecute runs for longer.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority had no immediate comment on Thursday regarding the news of Assange's arrest or whether a probe could be reopened.
However, a Swedish lawyer representing the alleged rape victim said she would push to have prosecutors reopen the investigation.
Reuters, AAP
