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Breaking News
posted by FatPhil on Thursday April 11 2019, @01:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the shoulda-taken-the-tea-chest-option-years-back dept.

Breaking: Met police confirm that Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy.

Mr Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.

The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court.

Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno said it withdrew Mr Assange's asylum after his repeated violations to international conventions.

But WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law".

[...] Scotland Yard said it was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum.

After his arrest for failing to surrender to the court, police said he had been further arrested on behalf of US authorities under an extradition warrant.

He doesn't look happy, to say the least.

Update: As this is a breaking story, more information is coming out regularly - one source that updates their reports frequently is Zero Hedge - thanks boru!

Previously: New Analysis of Swedish Police Report Confirms Julian Assange's Version in Sweden's Case
Ecuador Reportedly Almost Ready to Hand Julian Assange Over to UK Authorities
UK Said Assange Would Not be Extradited If He Leaves Embassy Refuge
Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange
U.S. Ramping Up Probe Against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Says
Ecuador Denies That Julian Assange Will be Evicted From Embassy in London


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Mykl on Friday April 12 2019, @03:10AM (6 children)

    by Mykl (1112) on Friday April 12 2019, @03:10AM (#828450)

    Illegal in the USA. He wasn't in the USA when he did it. Assange committed no crime on American soil.

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  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 12 2019, @05:36AM (3 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday April 12 2019, @05:36AM (#828496) Homepage Journal

    Computer belonged to America. To America's Army. Which is now my Army. And you seem to think, "oh it's O.K. to Hack American Computer, so long as you do it from another country." From Sweden or wherever. Very foolish and that's not the way it works.

    • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday April 12 2019, @05:53AM (2 children)

      by Mykl (1112) on Friday April 12 2019, @05:53AM (#828505)

      I'm sorry - I didn't realise it was Julian Assange who personally undertook the hacking.

      What's that? Oh, he didn't?! All he did was to provide encouragement and advice to someone else, while not on US soil at any point? If that's a crime in the country he's in, then prosecute there. But it's not a crime for the US courts to prosecute.

      Corollary - While in Sweden, I give a gun/polonium/viper/bottle of TMB's sweat to an assassin. That assassin travels to the US and shoots/feeds/bites/douses the victim, who dies. My supply of the murder weapon is not a US crime, though it may be a crime in Sweden.

      • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday April 12 2019, @05:59AM (1 child)

        by Mykl (1112) on Friday April 12 2019, @05:59AM (#828506)

        Sorry, just realised that I didn't add my context to the above.

        I don't believe he was involved in the actual hack itself. Why? Because they're only just claiming that now as a way to get the extradition to work. If it was actually the case, it would've been claimed looong ago.

  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday April 12 2019, @08:15AM (1 child)

    by ledow (5567) on Friday April 12 2019, @08:15AM (#828529) Homepage

    So if I hack into the White House door control system from the UK, and trap Trump in a door and kill him, does that mean I can't be charged and tried in the US for that crime?

    That's not how it works. For a start, that's what extraditions MEANS. This guy broke *our*laws, we'd like him to face our justice system, please. And then the other country (where he just so happened to be / do it from) oblige by arresting and extraditing him.

    "American soil" means nothing, and that's not just America's rule. If you hacked into MI5, the NHS, GHCQ, Downing Street, etc. then you can be pretty damn sure that they'll want to bring you before a UK court, wherever you happened to be.

    The system he *gained unlawful entry to* was based in the US. That's enough, even by 50-year-old laws, let alone laws that take account of the global Internet.

    Hell, did you know you can get done for "inter-state" crimes because you were in one state and posted things / accessed things / sent money to another state.

    You honestly need to seriously review any international legal case for the last... 100 years or more.

    Extradition is literally the process designed for exactly such cases, and you do not have to be on any particular soil to have commited a crime against a certain country.