Julian Assange who is the co-founder of Wikileaks has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London over a pending sexual assault case that has since been dropped. The Metropolitan Police Service arrested Mr. Assange who took refuge in at the Ecuadorian embassy seven years ago for failing to surrender to the court.
Lenin Moreno, president of Ecuador said it had withdrawn Mr. Assange's asylum after his repeated violations to international conventions. Although WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr. Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law".
Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: "I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK. "I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & Met Police UK for its professionalism. No one is above the law." Mr. Assange, 47, had refused to leave the embassy, claiming if he did he would be extradited to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
Scotland Yard said it was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum. Mr. Assange would remain in custody at a central London police station, before appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court "as soon as is possible", the statement added.
UK foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan said the arrest followed "extensive dialogue between our two countries". It comes a day after Wikileaks said it had uncovered an extensive spying operation against its co-founder at the Ecuadorean embassy.
