Diplomats from Britain, Ecuador and the US hatched a secret plot over six months to have Julian Assange dragged kicking and screaming out of hiding, it has been revealed.
A series of highly-confidential talks between the three nations led to the Wikileaks founder being arrested yesterday inside the embassy where he has spent nearly seven years.
In extraordinary scenes, eight British policemen hauled a bearded and dishevelled Assange, 47, to a waiting police van after Ecuador ended his asylum status.
The country said it was tired of his ‘discourteous’ behaviour and poor personal hygiene, which reportedly included smearing faeces on the walls of the embassy.
In a shocking turn of events, he was then charged by the American government with hacking 750,000 classified documents, which carries a five-year sentence.
The arrest of Assange (left) followed talks initiated in June by Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan (shown right, yesterday with Ecuadorian Ambassador Jaime Marchan)
In extraordinary scenes, eight British policemen hauled a bearded and dishevelled Assange, 47, to a waiting police van after Ecuador ended his asylum status yesterday
The arrest was a culmination of an international diplomatic process initiated in June last year by senior Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan.
The British politician opened talks with Ecuador on revoking Assange’s asylum status, which eventually led to discussions with the US about a possible extradition.
A breakthrough in discussions was finally reached when the US gave assurances that Assange would not be given the death penalty should be face justice in the states.
Sir Alan told The Telegraph: ‘We don’t extradite anybody to a country where they might face the death penalty without that routine assurance. We restated our policy.’
US authorities are reportedly set to file further charges in the coming days, including espionage, which can carry a 20-year sentence.
Assange now faces up to a year in a British jail, thought to be Wandsworth prison in south London, while rape allegations in Sweden from 2010 still hang over him.
His lawyer Jennifer Robinson and Kristinn Hrafnsson, Editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, address the media outside of Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday
Moments after the arrest, Wikileaks said Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Assange’s political asylum ‘in violation of international law’
Following six months behind bars his fight against extradition to the US would begin, with legal experts warning this process could take anywhere up to two years.
His legal fight began yesterday afternoon, when Assange was hauled in front of a judge at Westminster magistrates’ court for breaching bail.
The judge described him as a ‘narcissist’ unable to get past his own ‘selfish interests’ and sent the case to crown court. He faces up to a year in jail for the offence.
His comments caused Assange’s mother to hit out at the British legal system in a series of posts to Twitter, where she promised to ‘fight like hell’ to free her son.
Christine Assange tweeted: ‘UK judge should NOT be making statements like this! This is (a) rubbish Legal process!’
She added that Prime Minister Theresa May was ‘trying to divert attention away from her Brexit dog’s breakfast by cheering on the thuggish, brutal, unlawful arrest of my courageous, tortured multi-award winning journalist son Julian!’
Assange’s arrest came just 24 hours after Wikileaks accused Ecuador of an ‘extensive spying operation’, adding that it assumed intel had been handed over to Trump’s administration
A police van sits outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum
The Wikileaks founder (pictured over a seven-year period) finally appeared in court today after he was sensationally expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been claiming political refuge
Mrs Assange, who lives in Australia, also addressed Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, tweeting: ‘Shame on you @Lenin £Moreno! May the Ecuadorean people seek vengeance upon you, you dirty, deceitful, rotten traitor!
‘May the face of my suffering son haunt your sleepless nights.. And may your soul writhe forever in torturous Purgatory as you have tortured my beloved son!’
Meanwhile Swedish prosecutors said they would consider restarting the rape investigation which caused Assange to first seek refuge in the embassy.
The alleged victim’s lawyer declared she would ‘do all we can’ to get the case reopened.
A second woman, who accused Assange of sexual assault, said she was willing to appear as a witness.
Last night, a source close to Wikileaks claimed seven years holed up in the embassy had left Assange with a raft of health issues, including bad teeth and osteoperosis.
Fidel Narvaez (left), former consul of Ecuador to London, looks at some of the footage, alongside WikiLeaks editor in chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and barrister Jennifer Robinson yesterday
The Wikileaks founder was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in handcuffs yesterday by a large group of officers as stunned supporters and protesters watched on in central London
The source told the Mirror: ‘He is fighting on, but his health is compromised because he’s been in an embassy for however many years, and he’s not had sunlight and he’s not been able to move around.
‘I don’t think people understand that it’s a very small space, the Ecuadorian embassy. They’re not a country with a massive pile in Knightsbridge, it’s a few rooms.
‘I’ve seen him and he’s…you know, he’s suffering. He’s a human being, he’s suffering. Whatever the reason for that, it’s a fact.’
The embassy saga began in July 2012 when – having lost a battle against extradition to Sweden over two allegations of sexual assault – Assange entered the Ecuadorian property in Knightsbridge.
He was given asylum and later made a citizen of Ecuador. But events took a dramatic turn soon after 9am yesterday when police suddenly turned up at the doors.
What is UK’s extradition agreement with the US and how long could it take to send Assange to America?
The UK to US extradition process is in place to seek justice for serious crimes affecting both countries and its citzens.
It protects the rights of those accused and victims.
The latest version of the treaty updated the formal extradition relationship between the US and UK following changes in the UK’s own extradition laws and corrected a previous imbalances.
It was previously required that the US would have to present its evidence in ‘prima facie’ form, when the US had never required that from the UK.
A van with a ‘Free Speech’ placard and the images of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning on its side, outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London earlier this month
In the case of Assange experts have now said that he is likely to receive a custodial sentence in the UK and that and extradition to the US will follow.
Extradition lawyer Thomas Garner: ‘Given Assange’s public statements in the past it is clear that he would attempt to raise many bars to his extradition.
‘The extradition court here would not come to any conclusions on the merits of the US case in the proceedings here.
‘Its sole concern would be whether there are any legal bar to his being extradited to stand trial in the US. The process would take many months to conclude.
‘If there were an extradition request from the US, given the likely complexity of the case, it is doubtful that any final hearing would be heard this year.’
They were met at the embassy, a few streets from Harrods, by the ambassador whose government had decided to revoke their guest’s asylum.
Officers tried to introduce themselves to the Wikileaks founder, but he barged past them and tried to return to his private room, which can be locked by a secret code.
He resisted being put into handcuffs and exclaimed: ‘This is unlawful, I’m not leaving.’
Back-up officers were called in and ultimately, a team of eight officers bundled him out of the building by his arms and legs at around 10.15am.
As the scene unfolded, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno released his statement saying Assange’s stay at the embassy was ‘unsustainable and no long viable’.
Interior minister Maria Paula Romo accused Assange of smearing faeces on the walls during his stay.
She added: ‘Behaviour of this kind that is far removed from the minimum respect a guest should have in a country which has generously welcomed him.’
Soon after his arrest, police announced Assange had been held for breaching bail and over an extradition request from the US.
Sporting a long grey beard and a ponytail, the WikiLeaks founder smiled and waved to supporters in the public gallery from the dock in court yesterday.
But the smirk vanished when district judge Michael Snow described his defence to breaching bail as ‘laughable’.
In a final barbed remark, the judge suggested Assange should ‘get over to the US’ and ‘get on with your life’.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Justice yesterday unsealed charges against Assange that had been secret.
He has been charged with ‘conspiracy to commit computer intrusion’ – hacking – after allegedly agreeing to break a password for a US government computer.
He is accused of working with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the US Army, who downloaded classified records to give to WikiLeaks.
Between January and May 2010, Manning downloaded four databases containing 90,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan, 400,000 reports relating to the Iraq war, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 US Department of State cables. Many of them were classified but still released by WikiLeaks.
Manning was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violating the Espionage Act and was sentenced to 35 years – but that was later commuted by President Barack Obama and she was let out in 2017. She was jailed again in March this year for refusing to give evidence about WikiLeaks.
If he is extradited and convicted of the more serious charges, Assange could even end up in the notorious ADX Supermax Federal Prison in Colorado.
His extradition is likely to be appealed through the chain of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and potentially even the European Court of Human Rights.
His legal team said he was facing ‘what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.’
Supporters of Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London last Friday
Diane Abbott faces furious backlash for defending Julian Assange by saying his ‘real crime was to have embarrassed the US military’ and ‘we all know it’s not about the rape charges’
Diane Abbott was accused of ‘dismissing’ sexual assault allegations levelled at Julian Assange after she said three times this morning: ‘Charges were never brought.’
The Shadow Home Secretary yesterday called for the UK to block the Wikileaks co-founder’s extradition to the US for revealing sensitive military information.
She told John Humphrys on Radio 4 today that there may be human rights grounds on which to oppose the hacker being taken to the US after he was ejected from the Ecuadorian embassy.
Diane Abbott (pictured, right) has sparked fury online after comments this morning saw her accused of ‘dismissing’ sexual assault charges levelled at Assange (left)
Abbot (left) has sparked outrage as she was accused of dismissing sexual assault charges relating to two women (right)
The BBC presenter challenged the Hackney North MP, telling her that Assange had skipped bail and only sought diplomatic immunity in the building when he faced sexual assault allegations in Sweden and refused to go to the country.
She responded ‘those charges were never brought’ before Humphrys pointed out that Swedish law prevents suspects from being charge in their absence.
Abbott then repeated her assertion and said the pursuit of Assange had nothing to do with alleged rape.
‘The allegations were made but the charges were never brought,’ she said. ‘We all know what this is about. It’s not the rape charges – as they are – it’s about the Wikileaks and all of that embarrassing information about the activities of the American military and security services that was made public.’
Pictured: Assange after he was arrested following a seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian embassy yesterday
After saying for a third time that ‘charges were never brought’, Abbott said Assange should face justice if the Swedish government comes forward with charges, despite Humphrys having outlined why charges can’t be brought with Assange outside the Scandinavian country.
‘Much of the information he brought into public domain, it could be argued, were very much in the public interest,’ the Labour politician added.
Abbott’s remarks sparked outrage on social media as people took to Twitter to point out that Assange had ‘escaped’ charges by seeking immunity in the embassy. It’s not the first time the gaffe-prone MP has come under fire for comments made in an interview, with previous controversies including her assertion that dictator Chairman Mao did more good than harm.
Labour’s Jess Philips and Bridgett Philipson joined Tory Anna Soubry to condemn Abbott’s comments online. It comes after yesterday their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, called for Britain to ‘oppose’ any attempt at extraditing Assange to the states.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, pictured, told the House of Commons today Julian Assange was only being pursued by the US for ‘exposing wrongdoing’
Supporters of Assange’s activism point to him releasing footage of American troops firing on civilians, but his opponents highlight instances of revealing the identities of Afghan informants working with the US to topple Islamists.
It came after she joined left-wing campaigners in condemning Assange’s arrest yesterday.
The WikiLeaks founder, 47, is facing 12 months in a British prison after being hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London after a seven-year stay and brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he was found guilty of skipping bail.
Assange’s fashion designer friend Vivienne Westwood, pictured, joined supporters outside court to protest against his arrest
Westwood, pictured outside the court today, has previously designed t-shirts with slogans supporting Assange on them
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, pictured, called Assange a ‘hero’ and said his actions were ‘far from criminal’
In a sensational turn of events, he was also charged by the US government with conspiring with American whistleblower Chelsea Manning ‘to break a password to a classified government computer’ in 2010, for which he could be jailed for five years.
Ms Abbott joined the likes of Pamela Anderson, Edward Snowden, Vivienne Westwood and Peter Tatchell in voicing their concern for Assange.
Ms Abbott told the Commons: ‘Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect US national security.
‘He is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by US administrations and their military forces.’
US whistleblower Snowden warned the arrest was a ‘dark moment for press freedom,’ while fashion designer Westwood protested outside Westminster Magistrates Court.
Snowden, a former CIA agent tweeted: ‘Images of Ecuador’s ambassador inviting the UK’s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of-like it or not-award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books.’
Snowden is currently living in exile Russia having fled the US after leaking a huge cache of declassified documents back in 2013.
Assange’s close friend Pamela Anderson also blasted the arrest on Twitter, calling the UK ‘America’s b****’ and claiming it was a ‘diversion from Brexit’.
And the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed the move was ‘the hand of democracy squeezing the throat of freedom’.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Abbott said: ‘On this side of the House, we’re glad that Julian Assange will be able to access medical care, treatment and facilities because there have been worrying reports about his ill health.’
She added: ‘Even though the only charge he may face in this country is in relation to his bail hearings, the reason we are debating this this afternoon is entirely to do with the whistleblowing activities of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
‘It is this whistleblowing activity into illegal wars, mass murder, murder of civilians and corruption on a grand scale that has put Julian Assange in the crosshairs of the US administration.
‘It is for this reason that they have once more issued an extradition warrant against Mr Assange.’
She also compared his case to that of Gary McKinnon, who hacked into US military computers from the bedroom of his North London flat.
It came as Mr Corbyn dodged the opportunity to praise the arrest when it was brought up in Parliament by Prime Minister Theresa May earlier today.
Westwood is surrounded by photographers including a glamorous woman in a red hat and large sunglasses
There were huge crowds of journalists and protesters outside the court today as the Assange case drew attention from around the world
Ms Abbott claimed a ‘UN panel’ ruled Assange was being ‘arbitrarily detained and should be allowed to walk free’ from the Ecuadorian embassy.
In response, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said ‘the whole country will be pretty astounded by the tone she has taken’, saying Ms Abbott was ‘suggesting that we should not apply the rule of law to an individual’.
He accused her of ‘not giving quite correct information’ over her claims the UN had ruled in Assange’s favour, saying ‘the UN has no view on the Assange case’.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the US was leading an attack on the press and freedom of speech by arresting Assange, and the slammed the British government for cooperating.
Speaking on Sky News, he said: ‘What Julian Assange did was publish information that had been leaked by Chelsea Manning.
‘He was not the leaker. He published the information in the same way the Guardian did and the New York Times did.