Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: Updates

[ishwaq]

The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police.
The 39-year-old Australian denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.
Scotland Yard said Mr Assange was arrested on a European arrest warrant by appointment at a London police station at 0930 GMT.
He is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court later.
Mr Assange is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of rape, one of unlawful coercion and two counts of sexual molestation, alleged to have been committed in August 2010.
Police contacted his lawyer, Mark Stephens, on Monday night after receiving an European arrest warrant from the Swedish authorities.
Continue reading the main story Start Quote

It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law
​

End Quote Mark Stephens Julian Assange's lawyer
An earlier warrant, issued last month, had not been filled in correctly.
Mr Stephens said his client was keen to learn more about the allegations and anxious to clear his name.
He said: "It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law.
"Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name."
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange had been trying to meet the Swedish prosecutor in various ways to find out the details about the allegations he faces.
Mr Assange has come in for criticism in the last week for the revelations made on Wikileaks.
On Monday, Foreign Secretary William Hague criticised the website for publishing details of sensitive sites, including some in the UK, saying they could be targeted by terrorists.
Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described Mr Assange is "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands".
Wikileaks was forced to switch to a Swiss host server after several US internet service providers refused to handle it.
It has also come under cyber attack.

 

[jaanmark]

Re: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

meaningless act of swedish goverenment. Sex is no question in daily life or no family concipt or nor any mening of word shame. in sweden then why swedish arrest a Pure gentelman like Wiki leack s head arrested////?????????????

 

[Muhammad786]

Re: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

I do respect the Sir Julian Assange. which performed a very good job. He told us, what a big guns are doing in globel village.

 

[ishwaq]

Re: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange refused bail.
The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has told a court he will fight extradition to Sweden.
Bail was refused and the Australian, who denies sexually assaulted two women in Sweden, was remanded in custody pending a hearing next week.
A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court refused bail because of the risk of Mr Assange fleeing.
A Wikileaks spokesman said Mr Assange's arrest was an attack on media freedom.
Mr Stephens said after the court appearance he would be applying again for bail.
He also claimed the charges were "politically motivated" and he pointed out the judge had said he was keen to see the evidence against Mr Assange.
Kristinn Hrafnsson said it would not stop release of more secret files and told Reuters on Tuesday: "Wikileaks is operational. We are continuing on the same track as laid out before.
"Any development with regards to Julian Assange will not change the plans we have with regards to the releases today and in the coming days."

 

[adnan_swati]

Re: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

yeh hai azad media???

 

[Night_Hawk]

Re: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

WikiLeaks’ founder Assange seeks bail in UK court
Reuters
(46 minutes ago) Today
Tagged: Julian Assange, Julian Assange arrested, WikiLeaks

Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, some wearing masks depicting him and holding placards participate at a demonstration outside the Swedish Embassy In central London, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010. Assange remains in a U.K. jail ahead of a Dec. 14 hearing where he plans to fight Sweden's request to extradite him to face sex crimes allegations there. Marianne Ny, named on poster, is the Swedish Director of Public Prosecution. – Photo by AP

LONDON: Lawyers for Julian Assange, held in Britain over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden, will try again on Tuesday to win bail for the WikiLeaks founder who provoked US fury by publishing secret diplomatic cables.
The 39-year-old Australian handed himself in to British police last week after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant.
Assange was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers during a stay in Sweden. A Swedish prosecutor wants to question him about the accusations.
Assange, who denies the allegations, was remanded in custody at an initial British court hearing last week.
Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that US prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage after the WikiLeaks website published details of some of a trove of 250,000 secret US documents it has obtained.
“I came to Sweden as a refugee publisher involved with an extraordinary publishing fight with the Pentagon, where people were being detained and there is an attempt to prosecute me for espionage,” Assange said in a documentary broadcast on Swedish public television on Sunday.
The US Justice Department has been looking into a range of criminal charges, including violations of the 1917 Espionage Act that could be filed in the WikiLeaks case.
A ComRes poll of 2,000 Britons for CNN found 44 percent believed that the sex allegations against Assange were an excuse to get him into custody so the United States could prosecute him for releasing the secret papers. The same proportion believed Britain should send Assange to Sweden to face questioning.
Forty-one percent thought Assange should not be prosecuted for releasing the cables. Thirty percent thought he should be.
OPERATION PAYBACK
The classified cables have attracted worldwide media cover, embarrassing the United States and other countries.
Internet activists launched “Operation Payback” to avenge WikiLeaks against those perceived to have obstructed its operations. They temporarily brought down the websites of credit card firms Visa and MasterCard, as well as that of the Swedish government, last week.
The activists changed tack at the weekend, saying they now aimed to publish parts of the US cables as widely as possible.
Assange’s Swedish lawyer has said he would fight any attempt to extradite his client.
At last week’s court hearing in London, Senior District Judge Howard Riddle said there were “substantial grounds” to believe Assange could abscond if granted bail.
Australian journalist John Pilger, British film director Ken Loach and Jemima Khan, former wife of Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, all offered to put up sureties to persuade the court Assange would not abscond.
Assange is alleged to have sexually molested one woman in Sweden by ignoring her request to use a condom when having sex with her. Another woman alleged Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep.
Swedish prosecutors opened, then dropped, then re-opened an investigation into the allegations. The crime he is suspected of is the least severe of three categories of rape, carrying a maximum of four years in jail. – Reuters


http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/14/wikileaks-founder-assange-seeks-bail-in-uk-court.html

 

[FaisalLatif]

UK court grants bail to WikiLeaks' Julian Assange

LONDON – A British judge granted bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, but he remained in custody pending a possible appeal.
Swedish authorities were given two hours to lodge an appeal and their lawyer, Gemma Lindfield, said it was likely she would.
The 39-year-old Australian has been held in a London prison for a week after surrendering to Scotland Yard due to a Swedish arrest warrant in a sex-crimes investigation. He denies wrongdoing and his lawyer says he plans to fight extradition.
At Tuesday's hearing, District Judge Howard Riddle said Assange must abide by strict bail conditions. He must wear an electronic tag, live at a registered address, report to police every evening and observe two four-hour curfews each day.
A total of 240,000 pounds ($380,000) was put up as a guarantee by several supporters.
Assange's next court appearance was set for Jan. 11.
Supporters outside City of Westminster Magistrates' erupted in cheers when they heard news of the judge's ruling.
Lindfield, acting on behalf of Swedish authorities, had asked the court to deny Assange bail because the allegations Sweden were serious, Assange had only weak ties to Britain and he had enough money "to abscond."

 

[Night_Hawk]

Julian Assange to stay in jail as Sweden fights bail decision

• Decision to grant WikiLeaks founder bail challenged
• Swedish prosecutors' appeal to be heard within 48

• Mark Tran and Vikram Dodd
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010 18.19 GMT <li class="history">Article history
  John Pilger and Peter Tatchell explain why they've pledged money in surety for the WikiLeaks founder's bail outside the appeal hearing at Westminster magistrates court in central London Link to this video The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is to remain in jail after the Swedish authorities decided to challenge a decision by a British court to grant him bail on allegations of rape in Stockholm.
  A judge in London granted Assange 240,000 bail with strict conditions, including a curfew and the surrendering of his passport.
  But when counsel for the prosecution indicated it would appeal, the judge told Assange he would remain in jail until a hearing at a higher court within 48 hours.
  Assange's lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, had asked the City of Westminster magistrates court in London for bail on five conditions: 200,000 in security, surety of 40,000 from two people, a curfew, daily reporting to police, and surrender of his passport. The judge agreed, to much rejoicing among Assange's supporters.
  But elation turned to anger as lawyers representing Sweden challenged the decision.
  Speaking outside the court, Mark Stephens, one of Assange's lawyers, said: "The prosecution is doing no more than taking instructions from Sweden.
  "They are continuing to persecute Mr Assange ... An innocent man is in custody."
  The decision followed two hours of confusion as Stephens first said he understood that the prosecution would decline to challenge the court's decision.
  Sweden's decision means that the next legal arguments will be heard at the court of appeal. No time has yet been fixed.
  Assange entered Westminster court one at 2.12pm looking paler than at a previous hearing last week, and wearing a dark jacket and open-necked white shirt. With so much press interest, people were given permission to stand; in a break with tradition, journalists were allowed to tweet the proceedings.
  Amid chaotic scenes, Robertson, who cut short a holiday in Australia to be in court, had to bang on the door to get in.
  Some of Assange's celebrity supporters attended the hearing, including socialite Jemima Khan, Bianca Jagger and Fatima Bhutto, niece of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Outside, one protester held up a placard that read "Sex crimes, my arse!" But media outnumbered the protesters, who were about 30 strong.
  Arguing that Assange should be granted bail, Robertson challenged the legal basis on which the WikiLeaks founder had been arrested. He said: "We doubt whether this actual category of rape would be rape under English law," he told the court.
  Appearing for the Swedish authorities, Gemma Lindfield argued that Assange should be declined bail as the charges were serious and there was a real possibility he would leave the country.
  "This is not a case about WikiLeaks, rather a case about alleged serious offences against two women," she said.
  She said the allegations were serious and Assange had only weak ties to Britain and "the means and ability to abscond".
  The judge rejected her arguments and agreed that Assange would stay at Ellingham Hall in Suffolk, an estate owned by Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline club in London, who is one of the people offering security. Assange will have to report daily to a nearby police station at Bungay.
  The initial decision was greeted by cheers outside the courtroom, and Assange's supporters welcomed the move.
  "I'm very pleased that he is out," said the writer and political activist Tariq Ali. "I think the extradition charges should now be dealt with in the same way. His barrister made the same point, that this is not rape under English law and there is absolutely no reason for extradition. We are delighted he is out and he should never have been locked up in the first place."
  Even if the Swedish challenge fails, it could be a week before Assange is released. Mark Stephens, another of Assange's lawyers, said it would take some time to raise the bail money.
  Accusing the Swedish authorities of mounting a "persecution not a prosecution", Stephens said Assange would have to stay behind bars until the 200,000 is raised in cash and delivered to the court, as it did not accept cheques.
  Speaking to reporters after the court hearings, Stephens said: "There is enormous relief tinged with enormous sadness. Assange will spend another night in solitary confinement. It's a pretty unpleasant situation he's going through."
  Before the hearing, Assange remained defiant, telling his mother, Christine, from his cell he was committed to publishing more secret US cables. "My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them," Assange said, according to a written statement of his comments supplied to Australia's Network Seven by his mother.
  "We now know that Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others are instruments of US foreign policy. I am calling for the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks," he said in the statement.
  The 39-year-old Australian turned himself in to Scotland Yard detectives last week after being accused of sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. Sweden has yet to formally charge Assange with any offence.Assange has vowed to fight attempts to extradite him.
  He was denied bail by district judge Howard Riddle at City of Westminster magistrates court last Tuesday, on the grounds that there was a risk he would fail to surrender. The decision to remand him in custody came despite the film director Ken Loach, the journalist John Pilger, Khan and other suporters offering sureties for him totalling 180,000.
  His legal team has claimed Swedish prosecutors were put under political pressure to restart their inquiry to help silence and discredit Assange, whose website has provoked US anger by publishing some of a cache of 250,000 classified US diplomatic papers.
  Stephens, visited him in Wandsworth prison yesterday afternoon, and said his client was being held under harsher conditions than last week. He claimed Assange was being confined to his cell for all but half an hour a day, and denied association with others prisoners, access to the library or TV.
  Stephens also claimed a number of letters to Assange from media organisations had not reached the WikiLeaks founder. He said Assange was under 24-hour video surveillance and had complained that a tooth that broke off while he was eating had later been stolen from his cell.
  
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/14/julian-assange-wikileaks
  

 

[ishwaq]

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is granted bail

The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been granted conditional bail by a judge.
The 39-year-old was granted bail in London earlier this week but prosecutors objected to the decision and he remained in jail.
The Australian is fighting extradition to Sweden over sex charges involving two women. He denies the allegations.
His supporters have offered to put up a surety of 240,000 to guarantee he surrenders to bail.
The appeal was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London by Mr Justice Ouseley.
Earlier the judge made a ruling banning the use of Twitter to give a blow-by-blow account of Thursday's proceedings.
The ruling was made just before 1300 GMT but it is understood it may take up an hour to process his release paperwork.
'Politically motivated'
Mr Assange has received the backing of a number of high-profile supporters including human rights campaigners Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger, and film director Ken Loach.
Wikileaks has published hundreds of sensitive American diplomatic cables, details of which have appeared in the Guardian in the UK and several other newspapers around the world.

Mr Assange's supporters claim the charges are politically motivated
He has come under criticism in the US where former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said he should be hunted down like the al-Qaeda leadership.
Mr Assange argues the allegations against him are politically motivated and designed to take attention away from the material appearing on Wikileaks.
He is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.
He is also accused of having unprotected sex with another woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.

 

[Night_Hawk]

WikiLeaks founder Assange granted bail in London
AFP
(1 hour ago) Today
Tagged: Julian Assange, London High Court, sweden, WikiLeaks

The 39-year-old Australian was in court to hear a senior judge reject an appeal on behalf of Swedish prosecutors against a ruling Tuesday by a lower court that he be bailed. – Reuters Photo

LONDON: London’s High Court granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail Thursday after rejecting an appeal to keep him in jail while he fights extradition to Sweden to answer allegations of sex crimes.
The 39-year-old Australian was in court to hear a senior judge reject an appeal on behalf of Swedish prosecutors against a ruling Tuesday by a lower court that he be bailed.
“I am going to grant conditional bail,” judge Duncan Ouseley said.
He endorsed the stringent bail conditions imposed by the lower court, that Assange’s supporters must pay a 240,000-pound (283,000-euro, 374,000-dollar) surety and he will be subject to electronic tagging and a curfew.
Assange must reside at a supporter’s country mansion in Suffolk, eastern England. The judge made a slight change to the requirement for Assange to report regularly to police near the mansion.
Bail was granted on condition that 200,000 pounds in cash of the surety is made available to the court by the end of the day.
Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, earlier indicated that he would have the money in time.
Sweden wants Britain to extradite Assange for questioning over claims of rape and sexual molestation against two women in Stockholm in August, offences which he denies and which his lawyers argue are politically motivated.
They cite the timing of his arrest, which coincided with the release by the whistle-blowing website of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables that have caused huge embarrassment and anger in Washington.
Assange’s mother, Christine, and supporters including campaigning journalist John Pilger, had packed into the courtroom for the hour-and-a-half hearing along with hordes of journalists.
“I appreciate all the support,” Christine Assange told reporters afterwards.
Other supporters gathered in driving rain outside the Gothic court house shrieked with delight at news of the ruling and chanted “exposing war crimes is no crime”.
Hailing the judge’s decision, Pilger said it was “good news but it’s overdue” and suggested the wider issue was whether the US would also eventually seek Assange’s extradition.
“I think we should be looking in the long distance to the threat not just of extradition to Sweden but also of extradition to the US.
“That is the great unspoken issue in this court,” Pilger told journalists.
The judge rejected the assertion by British lawyers acting on behalf of Sweden that Assange was a flight risk.
“The court does not approach this case on the basis that this is a fugitive from justice who seeks to avoid interrogation and prosecution,” he said.
Assange must now live at the country estate of Vaughan Smith, an ex-British army officer who founded the Frontline Club, a media club in London where WikiLeaks has based part of its operations.
He must stay at the mansion, Ellingham Hall in Suffolk, during the extradition proceedings, which may take months.
WikiLeaks released new cables Thursday, with Thailand’s royal family again at the centre of the revelations. A memo from the US embassy in Bangkok showed top palace officials expressed concern about the prospect of the crown prince becoming king.
Three influential Thai figures, including two senior advisers to revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, “had quite negative comments about Crown Prince (Maha) Vajiralongkorn,” said the memo dated January 2010.
Another leaked cable revealed that an oil platform in Azerbaijan operated by BP suffered a well to blow out and a huge gas leak around 18 months before the Gulf of Mexico spill.
US President Barack Obama has led worldwide condemnation of WikiLeaks, dubbing their actions as “deplorable”, and Washington is pursuing an investigation into how the website obtained the information.
But WikiLeaks and its founder have also won global support — hackers have attacked credit card and payment firms who restricted funds to the website, and more than 660,000 people have signed an online petition of support.
http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/16/wikileaks-founder-assange-granted-bail-in-london.html

 

[Night_Hawk]

WikiLeaks chief Assange fears US charges
AFP
(51 minutes ago) Today
Tagged: assange, WikiLeaks

Assange walks in the grounds of Ellingham Hall in Norfolk.—AFP

BUNGAY: Julian Assange said Friday it was “increasingly likely” the US would try to extradite him on charges related to WikiLeaks, as he spent his first day on bail on an English country estate.
The 39-year-old founder of the whistle-blowing website is fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women, which he denies.
But speaking outside Ellingham Hall, a friend’s mansion in eastern England, where he must live while on bail, Assange said he was more concerned about potential moves from US authorities.
“The big risk, the risk we have always been concerned about, is onwards extradition to the United States. And that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely,” the Australian told reporters.
Assange said his lawyers believed a secret US grand jury investigation had been started into his role in WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables — a probe he condemned as “illegal”.
Looking relaxed and wearing a green puffa jacket in the snowy conditions, he said the mansion was a “big improvement” on the London jail where he was held in solitary confinement for nine days before his release on bail Thursday.
Media reports suggest that US prosecutors are trying to build a case against Assange on the grounds that he encouraged a US soldier, Bradley Manning, to steal US cables from a government computer and pass them to WikiLeaks.
Assange said: “I would say that there is a very aggressive investigation, that a lot of face has been lost by some people, and some people have careers to make by pursuing famous cases.”
He said WikiLeaks had pledged 50,000 dollars (38,000 euros) towards Manning’s legal fund.
But he told ABC television in the US that: “I had never heard of the name Bradley Manning before it was published in the press.
“WikiLeaks technology (was) designed from the very beginning to make sure that we never know the identities or names of people submitting us material.”
Later, in interviews with British media, Assange said Manning “is the only one of our military sources who has been accused and that means that he is in a difficult position.”
Meanwhile, in Washington a report by congressional researchers said the Espionage Act and other US laws could be used to prosecute Assange, but there is no known precedent for prosecuting publishers in such a case.
“Leaks of classified information to the press have only rarely been punished as crimes, and we are aware of no case in which a publisher of information obtained through unauthorized disclosure by a government employee has been prosecuted for publishing it,” the report said.
On the Swedish case against him, the former computer hacker claimed it was part of a “smear campaign” linked to WikiLeaks, saying prosecutors had yet to provide “a single piece of evidence” to back up its allegations.
Swedish prosecutors deny their case is related to WikiLeaks. Assange’s release was the result of a nine-day legal battle following his arrest in London on a Swedish warrant on December 7.
Although a judge in a lower court granted him bail Tuesday, prosecuting lawyers appealed. It was only after the appeal was rejected in the High Court Thursday that Assange could be freed on bail.
Judge Duncan Ouseley rejected the argument that Assange was likely to flee the country, but his supporters had to come up with a 240,000-pound (283,000-euro, 374,000-dollar) surety.
Assange has also been electronically tagged, is subject to a curfew and must report daily to a police station near the mansion in picturesque Suffolk. He was driven out of the mansion to report to police Friday.
The mansion is owned by Vaughan Smith, a former army officer and journalist who founded the Frontline Club in London which acts as WikiLeaks’ British base. He has described Assange as “courageous”.
Assange has vowed the allegations against him will not stop WikiLeaks from releasing further documents.
“People like to present Wikileaks as just me and my backpack — it is not true. We’re a large organisation,” he told reporters Friday.


http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/18/wikileaks-chief-assange-fears-us-charges.html