Wikileaks’ Assange arrested; U.S. charge unveiled

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April 11, 2019 - 10:33 AM

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court today in London. After weeks of speculation, Assange was arrested by Scotland Yard Police Officers inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in Central London this morning. GETTY IMAGES/JACK TAYLOR/TNS

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forcibly bundled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and into a waiting British police van today, setting up a potential court battle over attempts to extradite him to the U.S. to face charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents.

British police arrested Assange after the South American nation decided to revoke the political asylum that had given Assange sanctuary for almost seven years. Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno said he took the action due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily life.”

In Washington, the U.S. Justice Department accused Assange with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon. The charge was announced after Assange was taken into custody.

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