From a virtual prison to a real one

Has Julian been turning into Howard Hughes?

The United States has requested the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, after he was arrested at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. The Metropolitan police said the arrest was made on behalf of the US authorities.

[...]

Police were videoed forcibly removing Assange, from the Ecuadorian embassy, at around at around 10.50am. Police had been invited into the embassy by the Ecuadorian embassy, where Assange had take refuge for almost seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.

  Guardian

Actually, he was there to avoid being extradicted from Sweden to the US, which he knew would happen.

The president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, [j]ustifying the move handing him over to the British police, [...] said: “In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life- protocols.” [He] said he secured guarantees from the UK that Assange would not face the death penalty or torture.

Which Moreno knows means absolutely nothing when he's extradicted to the US.

Rafael Correa, who was Ecuadorian president when Assange was granted asylum, accused his successor of treachery.

[...]

Journalist and ex-lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who worked at the Guardian at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks, said US attempts to extradite Assange were “extremely chilling”.

Speaking to Democracy Now he said: The idea that the US government can just extend its reach to any news outlet anywhere in the world and criminalize publication of documents … is extremely chilling.”

Some it just shoots.

Patricio Mary, [a reporter from Chile’s el Ciudadano], said he had wanted to ask ambassador, Jaime Martín, about promises he had made to respect Assange’s asylum.

“Ecuadorian police pushed me and tried to fight with me,” he said. “We started shouting traitor and liar because when I interviewed him two days ago he told me there was no change with the position of Julian Assange and that the government of Lenín Moreno will respect international law.”

He said the Ecuadorians had breached their own sovereignty by inviting British police into their embassy. It was symbolic of the way the Ecuadorian government had treated journalists in their own country, where Moreno had shut down opposing newspapers and betrayed an incipient socialist revolution, he said.

The Home Office has confirmed the US request for Assange’s extradition is for an alleged “computer-related offence”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America.

“He is accused in the United States of America computer-related offences.”

So, not of leaking secrets? Very interesting.

From the DOJ statement:

Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the US sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

The extradition will be handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after leading the region’s failed bid to secede from Spain in autumn 2017, also offered Assange his support.

“I am deeply shocked by the arrest of Julian Assange in London,” he tweeted. “Human rights, and especially freedom of expression, are under attack once again in Europe.”

[...]

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has issued a longer statement on Assange’s arrest.

He said:

“What we’ve shown today is that no one is above the law. Julian Assange is no hero. 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. What’s happened today is the result of years of careful diplomacy by the Foreign Office and I commend particularly our ambassador in Ecuador and Sir Alan Duncan and his team here in London for their work. But it is also a very courageous decision from President Moreno in Ecuador to resolve this situation that has been going on for nearly seven years. I mean it’s not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorian Embassy, it’s actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorian Embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them. So this will now be decided properly, independently by the British legal system respected throughout the world for its independence and integrity and that is the right outcome.

“We have been talking to Ecuador for a very long time about how to resolve this situation. We are a law-abiding country and we will always uphold the law so we have to follow all the international rules in a situation like this. But there was a change of leadership in Ecuador. President Moreno took a courageous decision, which has meant we were able to resolve the situation today. We’re not making any judgment about Julian Assange’s innocence or guilt, that is for the courts to decide. But what is not acceptable is for someone to escape facing justice and he has tried to do that for a very long time and that is why he is no hero.”

[...]

A preliminary investigation [in Sweden] can be resumed as long as the suspected crime is not subject to a statute of limitation, the prosecutor added. In this case, the suspected crime of rape would be subject to a statute of limitation in mid-August 2020.

[...]

Multiple sources at UK broadcasters suggested there had been a pool agreement – where the BBC, ITN and Sky News take turns to provide a camera outside the embassy and agree to share any footage – from 5 April onwards. However, this was abandoned at the weekend when news editors concluded Assange would not be leaving imminently, meaning British broadcasters failed to capture the key moment.

[...]

The dramatic footage of a white-bearded Julian Assange being carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London by British police officers was captured by a camera operator from the news agency Ruptly, a subsidiary of the Russian government-backed news service RT.

The Berlin-based agency, which has carved out a niche in live-streaming events that others ignore, such as protests and public disorder, has maintained a 24-hour watch on the embassy since 5 April according to Laura Lucchini, the head of Ruptly’s newsroom.

[...]

They now have a global scoop, with the potential to make substantial sums from licensing the footage around the world.

[...]

Embarrassingly, British television stations are now having to rely on footage from a Russian government-backed news organisation to cover an event which took place on their own backyard in central London.

  Guardian

UPDATE:



UPDATE:

That's a good, arguable point.  However, I think, like the Al Capone charges, the US is using the computer hacking conspiracy charges to nail Assange, when what they really cared about was the leaking of the embarrassing classified material.