WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador withdrew its asylum which had allowed him to take refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for the last seven years.
The computer hacker faces the prospect of extradition to the United States. He was also found guilty in a British court on Thursday of breaking bail terms dating back to 2012.
Supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange rally for his release outside of the Westminster Magistrates Court in London. Source: AAP
Who is Julian Assange?
The now 47-year-old was born in Townsville, Queensland in 1971. He had a disrupted childhood, as his parents ran a touring theatre, and he became a father in his late teens.
Assange began various hacking activities in the late 1980s and continued to pursue them as the internet developed.
He was charged in 1994 with 31 counts of hacking and related crimes but avoided jail time on the condition he did not re-offend.
He then spent time as a researcher and began university courses at Central Queensland University and Melbourne University.
It was after his time at the latter institution he co-founded WikiLeaks in 2006.
It published secret official information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, infuriating the United States and other countries.
Assange’s supporters see him as a hero who challenges censorship and champions free speech. Others say he risked security by revealing secret documents.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stands on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy to address waiting supporters on 5 February, 2016. Source: AAP
Why was he in Ecuador's embassy in London?
In November 2011, London’s High Court said Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes after accusations by two former WikiLeaks volunteers in 2010.
After losing an appeal, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in June 2012 to avoid being extradited. He was granted political asylum by the anti-American left-wing former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa.
Assange reportedly made the decision to try and seek asylum in the embassy because he felt the Australian government had abandoned him.
Assange remained in the embassy after Sweden dropped the investigation against him in 2017, fearing the United States wanted to prosecute him.
Sweden’s then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said in 2017 that the Swedish probe could be reopened should the situation change.
The Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Britain, 11 April 2019. Source: AAP
Why did Ecuador change its mind about Assange?
In 2017 elections, Correa was replaced as Ecuadorean president by Lenin Moreno who has since moved Ecuador’s foreign policy to a more US-friendly stance.
He has been openly critical of Assange in recent months, calling him an inherited problem and accusing him of violating the rules of his asylum.
Moreno said the Australian had, while also continuing his work with WikiLeaks, been blocking security cameras, confronting guards and accessing security files.
What secrets did WikiLeaks reveal?
In July 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 91,000 documents, most of them secret US military reports about the war in Afghanistan. In October of that year, it released another 400,000 classified military files chronicling the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009.
Julian Assange arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. Source: AAP
What charges does Assange face in the US?
After years of speculation that Assange was a wanted man in the United States, US prosecutors announced charges against him after his arrest on Thursday, accusing him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer.
His arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States. Assange would face up to five years in prison on the US charge.
Manning was imprisoned between 2010 and 2017 for disclosing classified documents to WikiLeaks.
She has also been in jail since 8 March this year for her refusal to testify against Assange before a grand jury.
What has Ecuador said since the arrest?
Ecuador’s Moreno said the South American country had complied with its duties to Assange under international law and he accused WikiLeaks of repeatedly violating the rules of his asylum, including a provision which was meant to stop him intervening in the internal matters of other countries.
A leak of Vatican documents in 2019 was the most recent example of Assange violating that policy, Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter.
“I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty,” Moreno said. “The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules.”
What has Britain said since the arrest?
“I am sure that the whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange,” Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament.
“This goes to show that in the United Kingdom no one is above the law.”
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was right that Assange’s should be decided in the British judicial system.
“Julian Assange is no hero. He has hidden from the truth for years and years,” Hunt told Sky News.
Junior foreign minister Alan Duncan thanked Ecuador for paving the way for Assange’s arrest by withdrawing his asylum after “extensive dialogue” between London and Quito.
What do Assange's supporters say?
Assange’s London-based lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the arrest set a “dangerous precedent” for the media. “This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States,” she said.
Assange's Madrid-based lawyer Baltasar Garzon in Madrid said his client faces torture if he is extradited to the United States.
The arguments given for ending Assange’s nearly seven-year stay under asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy were false, and an extradition process would now start, Mr Garzon told reporters.
Guarantees?
British authorities' next moves against Assange will be closely watched.
Several British ministers have said that nobody is above the law.
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he received a written British guarantee that London would not extradite Assange to a country that might torture him or seek the death penalty.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, Editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks and barrister Jennifer Robinson speak to the media outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. Source: AAP
The United States applies the death penalty in both federal and state courts. Treason charges are punishable by death in times of war.
So far, however, the only charge that the United States has announced against Assange is the hacking conspiracy case bearing a jail term.
Legal basis?
WikiLeaks branded Ecuador's withdrawal of Assange's asylum illegal under international law.
Assange was granted Ecuadoran citizenship in 2017 but the country said on Thursday it had revoked this too.
The United Nations special rapporteur on arbitrary, summary or extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, said Ecuador "has exposed Mr Assange to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights".
A protester scuffles with police outside of the Westminister Magistrates Court, London. Source: AAP
Ben Wizner, an advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union, described any attempt to prosecute Assange in the US for WikiLeaks' publishing operations as "unprecedented and unconstitutional".
"(It) would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organisations," Wizner said.
