WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had been holed up since August 2012 and the British police have arrested him.
The arrest followed Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno’s announcement that the country has withdrawn asylum from Assange, following repeated ‘aggressive and discourteous behaviour”.
A statement by the British police said they were invited into the Ecuadorean embassy by the ambassador to effect the arrest. He had been holed up in the embassy since 2012.
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said.
The plan for the eviction was initially denied by authorities in Quito, Ecuador’s capital.
But today, President Lenin Moreno issued a video statement explaining why the country withdrew the asylum.
“Ecuador decided sovereignly to withdraw the diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange by repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol of coexistence”, Moreno tweeted.
