Video shows Julian Assange being forcibly removed from Ecuadorian embassy after arrest by UK police

Twitter/Ruptly/Business Insider

• Video footage shows the moment Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was forcibly removed from London’s Ecuadorian embassy on Thursday.
• Assange has been living in the embassy for seven years, but was arrested by UK police after Ecuador revoked his asylum.
• "The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit on the behavior of Mr Assange," Ecuador’s president said.
• Assange could now face extradition to the US over WikiLeaks’ involvement in the release of hundreds of thousands of US military documents. 

Video footage shows the moment that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was removed from London’s Ecuadorian embassy after being arrested by UK police.

Assange has been living in the embassy for seven years, but was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police after Ecuador revoked his asylum.

Video shared by Ruptly, a video news agency associated with Russia’s RT, shows the moment that Assange was escorted from the embassy on Thursday morning:

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that Assange is currently in custody in a police station and he will be transferred to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court "as soon as is possible."

Lenín Moreno, the president of Ecuador, said on Thursday that "The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit on the behavior of Mr Assange."

 

Assange, who is an Australian national, was granted asylum by Ecuador in June 2012, when he first started living in the London embassy. 

A warrant for his arrest has existed since 2012, after he failed to appear in Swedish court over sexual misconduct charges that he denies. That investigation has been dropped, though he also faced charges in the UK for breaching former bail conditions.

Assange could now face extradition to the US following WikiLeaks’ involvement in leaking hundreds of thousands of military documents.

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Source: Business Insider – sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)