He is certainly been hustled in and out of court at speed. We now must wait and watch to see just now this all gets handled.
It he fights to avoid extradition then any arguments for an arranged exercise will ring hollow. If instead he gets a quick slap on the wrist or a simple fine and he then waives an extradition hearing, we have a negotiated exit.
The Swedish story made no sense ever and speaks to something else going on.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces imprisonment, extradition to the U.S.
Julian
Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at
Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019, in London.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Julian
Assange faces imprisonment in Britain and extradition to the United
States after a tumultuous day that saw the Wikileaks founder arrested
after losing the protection of the Ecuadoran government that had
sheltered him for nearly seven years.
Mr.
Assange had been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since
June, 2012, when he was granted political asylum and shielded from
arrest by British police who wanted him on charges of skipping bail in
an extradition case involving allegations of sexual assault in Sweden.
Mr. Assange had always argued that the Swedish case was really a cover
to hand him over to U.S. authorities to face charges of stealing
thousands of secret military files, including reports of atrocities by
U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On
Thursday, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno turned on Mr. Assange,
accusing him of mistreating staff, accessing embassy security files and
threatening the government. “The patience of Ecuador has reached its
limit on the behaviour of Mr Assange,” Mr. Moreno said in a video
statement. He made the comments after clearing the way for London police
officers to enter the building early Thursday morning and arrest the
fugitive.
Mr. Assange appeared
dishevelled as officers dragged him out of the embassy and shoved him
into a van while he shouted; “This is unlawful, I’m not leaving.” He
faces 12 months in prison for the bail charge, and U.S. prosecutors
quickly announced on Thursday that they will be seeking his extradition
on a single charge of conspiracy to access confidential government
files. However, prosecutors could add additional charges.
The
British government has confirmed that the founder of Wikileaks, Julian
Assange, has been arrested after he sought asylum for years in Ecuador's
London embassy. Reuters
Mr. Moreno has insisted he knew nothing about the U.S. case when he decided to end Mr. Assange’s protection.
His
arrest has unleashed a fierce debate about Wikileaks and whether Mr.
Assange is a champion of free speech or a villain who steals secrets and
puts lives at risk. He has long defended Wikileaks as a journalistic
enterprise that publishes information in the public interest. But U.S.
officials have argued that Mr. Assange is not a journalist or a
whistle-blower but a political actor who uses stolen information.
On
Thursday, his many backers rushed to his defence, including Amnesty
International and American whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who urged
Britain not to hand him over. His arrest “sets a dangerous precedent for
all media organisations and journalists in Europe and elsewhere around
the world,” said one of his lawyers, Jennifer Robinson. “This precedent
means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the
United States for having published truthful information about the United
States.”
Britain’s opposition
Labour Party joined in praising Mr. Assange and questioned his
extradition. Labour MP Diane Abbott told the House of Commons on
Thursday that, “Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect U.S.
national security, he is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing
by U.S. administrations and their military forces."
But
many others welcomed Mr. Assange’s capture, saying that he had evaded
justice for too long and needed to face up to the many allegations
against him. “Julian Assange is no hero,” British Foreign Secretary
Jeremy Hunt said. “He has hidden from the truth for years and years and
it is right that his future should be decided in the British judicial
system.”
In
Washington, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Twitter: “In my book, he has
NEVER been a hero. His actions − releasing classified information − put
our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in
Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Swedish
officials also said they will consider reopening the sexual-assault
case they dropped in 2017 after Mr. Assange skipped bail and hid in the
Ecuadoran embassy to avoid extradition. British authorities had insisted
for years that Mr. Assange would be arrested on the bail charge if he
ever left the embassy.
On Thursday,
he appeared before Judge Michael Snow who quickly found Mr. Assange
guilty on the bail charge. “His assertion that he has had not had a fair
hearing is laughable,” the judge said in his ruling. “And his behaviour
is that of a narcissist who cannot get past his own self-interest.” Mr.
Assange will be sentenced next month and could spend 12 months in jail.
If
Sweden does reopen the case and seek Mr. Assange’s extradition, British
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said it will be up to the court to decide
whether Mr. Assange should be sent to Sweden or the United States.
His
bigger legal battle now looms in the United States, where he has been
charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Prosecutors allege
that Mr. Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army
intelligence officer who worked in Iraq and held a top-secret security
clearance. In 2010, Ms. Manning downloaded more than 700,000 classified
military reports and cables, and gave them to Mr. Assange who published
the contents on Wikileaks. Among the material was a military video
showing an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007 that killed a dozen
civilians and two Reuters journalists.
Mr.
Assange and Ms. Manning also allegedly tried to break into Department
of Defence computers to access secret documents, court filings allege.
Ms. Manning was convicted on several charges of espionage and theft, and
sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2010. She served seven years before
president Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017. Mr. Assange has
not been charged with espionage at this point and the charge that the
United States announced Thursday carries a maximum sentence of five
years.
Mr. Assange has also been
implicated in the Russian hacking scandal that rocked the 2016 U.S.
presidential election. Wikileaks published thousands of stolen e-mails
from the Hillary Clinton campaign and U.S. investigators believe the
information came from Russian hackers. Mr. Assange has always insisted
that he did not get the e-mails from Russians.
U.S.
President Donald Trump praised Wikileaks on the campaign trail in 2016.
However, on Thursday, he had little to say about Mr. Assange’s arrest.
"I know nothing about Wikileaks,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “It’s not my
deal in life.”
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