WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on a 7-year-old warrant early Thursday at the Embassy of Ecuador in London.
“Julian Assange, 47, 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,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Assange was wanted by British police for skipping bail in August 2012, while he was under investigation for sexual assault and rape in Sweden.
London’s Metropolitan police said the Ecuadorian government had withdrawn asylum for Assange, adding that officers had been “invited into the embassy by the ambassador.”
Assange, an Australian native, founded the website WikiLeaks in 2006 and drew attention over the next decade for releasing sensitive, and often classified, information.
The awhile back a mistake in a document filed by the US authorities hinted that criminal charges may have been prepared in secret.
The text of the court filing, which relates to a completely separate case, includes two mentions of someone called Assange, including a suggestion that the documentation in the case “would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges”.
The filing was a motion to seal the charges, meaning they would be kept secret, because “due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity around the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged”.