By Paola Totaro in London
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested
- He is to appear in a London court shortly
- Scores of photographers and journalists waiting at court
- WikiLeaks tweets arrest "won't affect our operations"
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by London police on behalf of Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.
The Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit confirmed at 10.30am London time (8.30pm AEDT) that the 39-year-old Australian had been arrested “by appointment” on a European Arrest Warrant an hour earlier.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.Credit: AFP
The Swedish warrant cites one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape – all allegedly committed in August this year.
Australian-born human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has cut short his annual summer holiday in Sydney to represent Mr Assange.
Members of the media gather outside the rear entrance of Westminster Magistrates Court in London.
Mr Robertson and another specialist extradition lawyer from his Doughty Street Chambers are to act for Mr Assange and appear in a magistrate's court within 24 hours to argue for bail. A full hearing of the extradition case must be heard inside 28 days.
However, London legal sources warned that the type of European arrest warrant issued against Mr Assange over sexual assault claims in Sweden was extremely difficult to "avoid or challenge".
He and his lawyers planned to fight the extradition with every available resource because of growing fears that this case would allow for preparation for an immediate follow-up and handover to US authorities in the wake of the release of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
This website understands that Mr Robertson, whose chambers are one of the few with specialist experience in extradition proceedings with Scandinavian nations, has been in contact with Mr Assange for some time about his defence and met federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland about the case last week.
Members of the media gather outside the rear entrance of Westminster Magistrates Court in London.
The surrender of Mr Assange is unfolding as his whistleblower's website continued to battle a seemingly concerted global effort to combat further information release led by the US Attorney-General Eric Holder.
Mr Holder said he had authorised "significant" actions aimed at prosecuting the WikiLeaks founder, but refused to specify what these might be.
"The lives of people who work for the American people have been put at risk. The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way. We are doing everything that we can."
Mr Assange is reported by The Guardian to be seeking supporters to put up surety and bail and has said he expected to have to raise between £100,000 and £200,000 – and six people offering surety – to stave off attempts to hold him in remand.
Mr Assange has reportedly told friends that he was increasingly convinced the US was behind Swedish prosecutors' attempts to extradite him for questioning on the assault allegations.
He has previously said that the original allegations were the product of "personal issues" but that he now believed Sweden had behaved as "a cipher" for the US.
Mr Assange is wanted by Swedish detectives after two women claimed they were sexually assaulted by him when he visited the country last August. The Swedish supreme court upheld an order to detain him for questioning after he successfully appealed against two lower court rulings.
Mr Assange has also said that he declined to return to Sweden to face prosecutors because he feared he would not receive a fair trial and that prosecutors had requested that he be held in solitary confinement and incommunicado.
He has admitted that he was becoming exhausted by the battle to keep defending the allegations in Sweden while running the carefully managed release of the US cables at the same time.
A Swiss bank announced this week that had shut down Mr Assange's account because he had allegedly given "false information", while the US-based commerce business PayPal has also frozen the WikiLeaks accounts, hindering the site’s ability to raise funds.
Mr Assange has $61,000 in PayPal and $37,000 in the Swiss account, sources said.
American political rhetoric and attacks against WikiLeaks are escalating, with the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin exploiting global debate to describe Mr Assange as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands".
However in Australia today, Prime Minister Julia Gillard backed away from her comment of late last week that the actions of Mr Assange and WikiLeaks were "illegal".
When asked what, under Australian law, was illegal about his actions, she was unable to nominate anything.
"The foundation stone of it is an illegal act," Ms Gillard said.
The "foundation stone" was the initial theft of the cables - allegedly committed by a US army private - and not the publication by WikiLeaks.
"It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken," Ms Gillard said.
The opposition's legal affairs spokesman, Senator George Brandis, later called Ms Gillard's use of language "clumsy".
"As far as I can see he [Mr Assange] hasn't broken any Australian law, nor does it appear he has broken any American laws," he told Sky News.
Mr Assange has written an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper for Wednesday in which he refers to a young Rupert Murdoch in 1958, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, who said: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
The piece, of which the paper released a snippet before Wednesday's publication, argues the need for freedom of speech and refers to the "dark days" of corrupt government in Queensland (where Mr Assange was raised) as well as the Fitzgerald inquiry and much about his upbringing in a country town, "where people spoke their minds bluntly".
Mr Assange reportedly claims Australian politicians' chant of "You'll risk lives! You'll endanger troops!" with the US makes no sense as they argue in the same breath that "there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both", he says.
Scores of photographers and journalists are waiting in zero degree cold as reports emerged that Mr Assange would appear in the Magistrate's Court in London's Horseferry road by 2pm London time.
A statement on Twitter from WikiLeaks tweeted that "today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal".