"Julian Assange did not
'walk out of the embassy.' The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police
into the embassy and he was immediately arrested," WikiLeaks wrote on
Twitter
WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrested
by British police Thursday morning.
"Assange did not leave of
his own free will and could be heard shouting 'U.K. must resist, you can
resist!' as he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy," Gizmodo reported.
On Twitter, WikiLeaks wrote,
"Julian Assange did not 'walk out of the embassy.' The Ecuadorian
ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately
arrested."
Assange's arrest was
immediately condemned as a "direct attack on whistleblowers," and
it comes
amid growing fears that the U.K. could extradite the Wikileaks founder
to the United States.
"It will be a sad day for
democracy if the U.K. and Ecuadorian governments are willing to act as
accomplices to the Trump administration's determination to prosecute a
publisher for publishing truthful information," Assange's legal team said
in a statement last week.
DiEM25, a progressive European
political organization founded by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis
Varoufakis, called Assange's
arrest "an outrageous violation of human rights and a vicious attack on
freedom of speech and whistleblowers."
Journalist John Pilger added,
"The action of the British police in literally dragging Julian Assange
from the Ecuadorean embassy and the smashing of international law by the
Ecuadorean regime in permitting this barbarity are crimes against the most
basic natural justice. This is a warning to all journalists."
In a statement, Ecuadorian
President Lenín Moreno said "Ecuador has sovereignly decided to terminate
the diplomatic asylum granted to Mr. Assange in 2012."
The Washington Post reported that
Ecuador "said it was rescinding asylum because of his 'discourteous and
aggressive behavior' and for violating the terms of his asylum."
On Twitter, WikiLeaks accused
Moreno of violating international law:
URGENT: Ecuador has illegally
terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was
arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago. https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/03/18/the-assange-precedent-the-threat-to-the-media-posed-by-trumps-prosecution-of-julian-assange/ …
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