Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador withdraw asylum

Samuel Vimes

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47891737

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Looks like they got fed up with this spoilt egomanic and withdrew his asylum.
I have always considered him a loathsome self serving prick.
Betting on the US now seeking his extradition?

Duane Dibbley

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested after Ecuador withdrew asylum this morning.

It comes after WikiLeaks last week claimed Assange would be expelled within "hours to days" and Ecuador had an agreement with the UK for his arrest.


Assange, 47, had been holed up in the embassy in posh Knightsbridge for 7 years, initially to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual offences.

He fears he could be extradited to face charges in the US, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "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.

"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.

"The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates' Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum."

So time has run out for Julian Assange.

With the accusations Sexual Offences in Sweden and the Leaks in the US I dont see how this guys life will ever be normal.

Zorya

Gonna be interesting to follow this one. For what it's worth, I think he did the world a service. The assault accusations against always seemed contrary to me. Then again, he could be a despicable sex pest and still have done the world a service with his leaks on illegal activities.

BrokenArrows

Your quote is wrong. He has been in the embassy since 2012.

7 years of self imprisonment. A bit stupid if you ask me. The problem was never just going to go away. So you might as well just face the music and fight it.

Yurt2

I thought the Swedish prosecutors dropped the charges?

Skylinehead

Yurt! wrote: »

I thought the Swedish prosecutors dropped the charges?

They did, eventually. Now he has to deal with skipping bail for 7 years.

Charles Ingles

Nixonbot wrote: »

They did, eventually. Now he has to deal with skipping bail for 7 years.

So he is guilty of being innocent?

Samuel Vimes

Expect an extradition request from the US almost immediately, perhaps as soon as today.

98q76e12hrflnk

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Your quote is wrong. He has been in the embassy since 2012.

7 years of self imprisonment. A bit stupid if you ask me. The problem was never just going to go away. So you might as well just face the music and fight it.

Ya that's realistically possible:rolleyes:.

monkeybutter

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Your quote is wrong. He has been in the embassy since 2012.

7 years of self imprisonment. A bit stupid if you ask me. The problem was never just going to go away. So you might as well just face the music and fight it.

Well if he just ends up on that Island Prison the swedes have then grand, but if he ends up being best friends with big hank in the slammer stateside, i'd chose the 7 years eating ceviche thanks

Skylinehead

Charles Ingles wrote: »

So he is guilty of being innocent?

What?

BrokenArrows

Yurt! wrote: »

I thought the Swedish prosecutors dropped the charges?

They did.
But he broke his UK bail conditions by fleeing to the embassy. So he is arrested for breach of bail conditions.

Zorya

Extraordinary photo. Looks like he was not going quietly

BrokenArrows

He didnt go quietly at all. haha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY6v63jMyl4

Zorya

https://twitter.com/barnabynerberka/status/1116275982518898688

Charles Ingles

Zorya wrote: »

Extraordinary photo. Looks like he was not going quietly

Get your hands off me, you'll do nothing!!

Franz Von Peppercorn

Samuel Vimes wrote: »

Expect an extradition request from the US almost immediately, perhaps as soon as today.

They’ll just create a martyr.

Laois_Man

It sounds like yer man who became president of Ecuador in 2017 just wanted to wash his hands of it.

https://twitter.com/Lenin/status/1116271659512684544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1116271659512684544&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rte.ie%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F2019%2F0411%2F1042012-julian-assange%2F

Zorya

What with Chelsea Manning in jail and Assange now arrested it is clear that whistle blowers are not welcome. We do not really live in democracies at all.

I thought someone had embedded an old bearded fellas head on his shoulders! Then I watched the video clip

is_that_so

Charles Ingles wrote: »

So he is guilty of being innocent?

Nah, bail was set, he did a runner. There's a charge that goes with that on its own.

Zorya

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

I thought someone had embedded an old bearded fellas head on his shoulders! Then I watched the video clip

So did I. He looks dreadful.

is_that_so

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

They’ll just create a martyr.

Who actually remembers him? And for what?

Charles Ingles

is_that_so wrote: »

Nah, bail was set, he did a runner. There's a charge that goes with that on its own.

I know if charges are dropped, surely the bail conditions attached to those charges should be scrapped also.
But having said that, what would I know I'm just a farmer

it's noticeable that all of his celebrity "Friends" have one very silent about him.

Samuel Vimes

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

They’ll just create a martyr.

Trump will be delirious with this, he will totally go to town on Assange.

Grayson

Charles Ingles wrote: »

I know if charges are dropped, surely the bail conditions attached to those charges should be scrapped also.
But having said that, what would I know I'm just a farmer

Makes sense.

The guy's still a dick though.

Mena Mitty

Zorya wrote: »

So did I. He looks dreadful.

I thought it was Padre Pio.

Kirby

is_that_so wrote: »

Who actually remembers him? And for what?

The PewDiePie generation, ladies and gentleman.

We are f*cked.

Auguste Comte

One of life's true hero's. Sacrificed so much for the greater good. The world needs more people like him.

Zorya

is_that_so wrote: »

Who actually remembers him? And for what?

Some of us do. He is a significant person. History doesn't die with every new day.

Summary of some things from wiki

The group has released a number of prominent document dumps. Early releases included documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in the Afghanistan war and a report informing a corruption investigation in Kenya.[11] In April 2010, WikiLeaks released the Collateral Murder footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed. Other releases in 2010 included the Afghan War Diary and the "Iraq War Logs". The latter allowed the mapping of 109,032 deaths in "significant" attacks by insurgents in Iraq that had been reported to Multi-National Force – Iraq, including about 15,000 that had not been previously published.[12][13] In 2010, WikiLeaks also released the US State Department diplomatic "cables", classified cables that had been sent to the US State Department. In April 2011, WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files relating to prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[14]

During the 2016 US presidential election campaign, WikiLeaks released emails and other documents from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta.[15] These releases caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been attributed as a potential contributing factor to her loss.[16] The U.S. intelligence community expressed "high confidence" that the leaked emails had been hacked by Russia and supplied to WikiLeaks, while WikiLeaks denied their source was Russia or any other state.[17] During the campaign, WikiLeaks promoted conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.[18][19][20] In private conversations from November 2015 that were later leaked, Julian Assange expressed a preference for a GOP victory in the 2016 election, explaining that "Dems+Media+liberals woudl [sic] then form a block to reign [sic] in their worst qualities. With Hillary in charge, GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities, dems+media+neoliberals will be mute."[21] In private correspondence with the Trump campaign on election day (8 November 2016), WikiLeaks encouraged the Trump campaign to contest the election results in case they lost.[22]

WikiLeaks has drawn criticism for its absence of whistleblowing on or criticism of Russia, and for criticising the Panama Papers' exposé of businesses and individuals with offshore bank accounts.[23][24] WikiLeaks has also been criticised for inadequately curating its content and violating the personal privacy of individuals. WikiLeaks has, for instance, revealed Social Security numbers, medical information, credit card numbers and details of suicide attempts

Yurt2

Jaysus the state of him. 7 years stuck inside in a building without so much as going for a walk to the shops - his brain must've turned to mush.

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte wrote: »

One of life's true hero's. Sacrificed so much for the greater good. The world needs more people like him.

The odd bit bit of rape here and there never hurt anyone I guess :rolleyes:

Franz Von Peppercorn

is_that_so wrote: »

Who actually remembers him? And for what?

Who remembers Assange the guy who was arrested just today? Everybody on this thread for one.

Fart

Charles Ingles wrote: »

I know if charges are dropped, surely the bail conditions attached to those charges should be scrapped also.
But having said that, what would I know I'm just a farmer

Surely with all the bale's of hay lying around your backyard, you'd know about bail conditions?

Mena Mitty

Mena Mitty wrote: »

I thought it was Padre Pio.

Auguste Comte

Aegir wrote: »

The odd bit bit of rape here and there never hurt anyone I guess :rolleyes:

When was he convicted of rape?
Character assassination would be much more likely imo.

super_furry

Kirby wrote: »

The PewDiePie generation, ladies and gentleman.

We are f*cked.

He hasn't even been on Keemstar's channel, so he can't be important.

is_that_so

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Who remembers Assange the guy who was arrested just today? Everybody on this thread for one.

But quite a few didn't even recognise him. It's the era of fast moving social media where yesterday is already forgotten. He was famous once for doing the world a service but it turns out he was a bit of an arse of man and holed up for seven years because his ego told him he was important, only to emerge looking like the hermit from Life of Brian. Now there's likely to be a raft of legal stuff to go through, which may or may not result in convictions. The end

Franz Von Peppercorn

Aegir wrote: »

The odd bit bit of rape here and there never hurt anyone I guess :rolleyes:

Charges were dropped. Political anyway. Not sure why the U.K. arrested him.

Basically this is the arrest of a journalist.

There’s an interesting alliance against Assange though from far right to Democratic left.

I mean in the sense of the Democratic Party in the US.

Penn

Auguste Comte wrote: »

When was he convicted of rape?
Character assassination would be much more likely imo.

He wasn't convicted of rape, because when he was released on bail, he breached his bail conditions and fled to the Ecuadorian Embassey where he was granted asylum. He's been there since this morning. So he never faced trial for rape like he was supposed to.

But of course, I'm pretty sure you know all that already.

Amirani

Charles Ingles wrote: »

I know if charges are dropped, surely the bail conditions attached to those charges should be scrapped also.
But having said that, what would I know I'm just a farmer

You're conflating two things. He was required to uphold the conditions of his bail and to appear before a British Court. He breached the conditions of his bail and did not present himself for the court. This is an offence entirely independent of what did or didn't happen in Sweden.

Zorya

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Charges were dropped. Political anyway. Not sure why the U.K. arrested him.

Basically this is the arrest of a journalist.

There’s an interesting alliance against Assange though from far right to democratic left.

Isn't there though? Guess everyone must have skeletons in the closet.

suicide_circus

whistleblower McCabe has his rep sullied with a child molestation document

Assange accused of rape

hmmm

is_that_so

Auguste Comte wrote: »

When was he convicted of rape?
Character assassination would be much more likely imo.

It's a charge not a conviction, still open in Sweden AFAIK and I believe he's prepared to face it. It's US extradition he was trying to avoid.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Penn wrote: »

He wasn't convicted of rape, because when he was released on bail, he breached his bail conditions and fled to the Ecuadorian Embassey where he was granted asylum. He's been there since this morning. So he never faced trial for rape like he was supposed to.

But of course, I'm pretty sure you know all that already.

The charges were dropped. This doesn’t seem to be the reason he was arrested. It’s on foot no doubt of an American extradition warrant.

Samuel Vimes

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Charges were dropped. Political anyway. Not sure why the U.K. arrested him.

Basically this is the arrest of a journalist.

They had to arrest him, he was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant.
He is no journalist , just a well paid Putin puppet!

is_that_so

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Charges were dropped. Political anyway. Not sure why the U.K. arrested him.

Basically this is the arrest of a journalist.

There’s an interesting alliance against Assange though from far right to Democratic left.

I mean in the sense of the Democratic Party in the US.

No, it's the arrest of someone who skipped bail and needs to answer that charge.

Duane Dibbley

Samuel Vimes wrote: »

Trump will be delirious with this, he will totally go to town on Assange.

?

Didnt Wikileaks help Trump win the election?

Clinton Emails?

Samuel Vimes

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

The charges were dropped. This doesn’t seem to be the reason he was arrested. It’s on foot no doubt of an American extradition warrant.

He has been arrested for breaching his bail conditions which is a specified offence in and of itself.
But I suspect you are right re the US- apparently there is a sealed indictment against him so he should be on his way to the land of the orange jumpsuit soon enough.

Zorya

Samuel Vimes wrote: »

They had to arrest him, he was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant.
He is no journalist , just a well paid Putin puppet!

Hahah I love this Retro Russian thing, it's so 1980s. But yeah, even IF he was a Putin patsy the files he leaked were real - even if they were biased, they were real. He exposed the **** show underbelly of many things - and for that he has been reviled by those in power.