WikLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, ending his seven-year asylum tenure there.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday morning, for breaching conditions of his bail in the UK.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said the decision to remove Assange’s asylum was made over “repeated violations” to international conventions and “daily life protocols.”
In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/pZsDsYNI0B
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019
In a brief video statement, Moreno described Assange’s behaviour as “discourteous and aggressive,” claiming the 47-year-old had made “hostile and threatening declarations” against his country.
“The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit,” Moreno said.
The Ecuadorian leader specifically cited WikiLeaks’ release of a batch of Vatican documents earlier this year, before listing a number of activities at the embassy in London that he did not agree with.
Assange had installed electronic distortion equipment, blocked security cameras, accessed security files “without permission”, and had “confronted and mistreated” embassy staff, he said.
Stressing the importance of human rights, Moreno requested the UK do not extradite Assange to a country where he could face the death penalty, such as the US.
Assange is currently wanted in the US over the hacking and leaking of classified documents concerning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
However, former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, who granted Assange asylum in 2012, described Moreno as a “great traitor” who had just committed a “crime that humanity will never forget.”
Describing the arrest on Thursday, WikiLeaks refuted claims that its founder had simply walked out of the embassy building.
The Ecuadoran ambassador had instead “invited” British police inside, the organisations said, where Assange was “immediately arrested.”
URGENT
Julian Assange did not "walk out of the embassy". The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately arrested.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Assange’s arrest came just a day after WikiLeaks held a press conference saying it had uncovered an “extensive spying operation” on its founder.
Individuals in Spain demanded a €3 million ransom for a “massive trove of documents” accumulated on Assange, which included video and audio recording inside the Ecuadorian embassy, and other documents.
Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said he believed the documents were going to be handed over to US authorities to aid in an extradition case, but he said he had no hard evidence to prove it.