QUITO, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A collaborator of WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange was arrested Thursday in Ecuador while trying to flee to
Japan, the South American country\u2019s interior minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister, Maria Paula Romo, did not name the person or give their
identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the person was very close to Assange, who was arrested Thursday in London on a US extradition request after spending seven years in the
Ecuadoran embassy there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assange stay at the embassy came to an abrupt end when police entered the building and arrested him after Ecuador withdrew his asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assange has been living at the embassy in London\u2019s plush Knightsbridge district since 2012 when he sought refuge there after being accused of sexual assault in Sweden \u2014 allegations that have since been dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Footage shot by Ruptly, a video news agency, showed a frantic-looking Assange, with a large white beard, being carried down the embassy steps by several men into a police van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WikiLeaks accused Ecuador of breaching international law by withdrawing his asylum and said the country\u2019s ambassador to London had \u201cinvited\u201d police into the embassy building to carry out the arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEcuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law,\u201d the whistleblowing website said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia accused Britain of \u201cstrangling freedom\u201d with Assange\u2019s arrest, in a Facebook message by foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. — NNN-AGENCIES
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QUITO, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A collaborator of WikiLeaks founderJulian Assange was arrested Thursday in Ecuador while trying to flee toJapan, the South American country\u2019s interior minister said. The minister, Maria Paula Romo, did not name the person or give theiridentity. She said the person was very close to Assange, who was arrested Thursday in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19854"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}