Julian Assange .. "Pirate" in the trap of leaks and rape

Sky News Arab - Abu Dhabi
He took piracy as a hobby in his adolescence before directing his skills to aspects such as intelligence, when he revealed thousands of leaks about US diplomacy, becoming an enemy of the United States and a "hero" in the eyes of her adversaries, especially Russia. But accusations of rape hit his reputation and made him immune to one Embassies for fear of arrest.

When Assange published its WikiLeaks website in 2006, thousands of diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world were read to the State Department in Washington, especially over the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, in October 2010.

But the image of the pirate, who aims to spread the truth by leaking intelligence and diplomatic documents, did not remain the same when he was arrested by British police on 7 December 2010 under an international arrest warrant issued by the Swedish judiciary on charges of rape and sexual harassment.

Assange also faces charges in the United States of conspiring to reveal secret US information.

On June 19, 2012, Assange took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London and sought asylum after a British court handed him over to Sweden.

From the embassy balcony

Asang has been protected by the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years, and has been waiting for her to deliver speeches and statements to the press, while the police can not arrest him in a foreign sovereign territory.

But on Thursday morning, April 11, 2019, and by an understanding between the governments of Britain and Ecuador, the controversial activist was stabbed by the Latin state when he decided to lift his asylum status and hand him over to the London police.

The President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, justified his government's decision to withdraw the status of a refugee from the founder of Wikileaks, as "repeated violations of international norms and protocols of daily life."

London police arrested Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador on the basis of his arrest warrant issued in 2012.

Assange's arrest showed how much support he had received from opponents of the United States, particularly Russia, which quickly denounced his extradition to the British police.

"The hand of (British) democracy is tightening the grip on freedom," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
A section of prosecutions

Once Assange left the embassy door, he opened another door of charges and prosecutions.

US prosecutors said they accused WikiLeaks founder of conspiring with former CIA analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 to try to access a secret US government computer.

The US Justice Department said in a statement that Assange faces up to a maximum of five years' imprisonment.

But the more serious charges of rape and sexual harassment in Sweden, where the lawyer of the woman who accused Assange of raping her in 2010, said Thursday that she would ask to re-open the investigation into the case.

"We will do our best to open prosecutors in Sweden and Assange will be deported to Sweden and brought to justice," Elisabeth Massey Fritz told AFP.

Since Assange was a refugee at the Embassy of Ecuador in London, Sweden renounced his pursuit in May 2017, with the 3-year limitation period and the lack of progress of investigations.

The woman, who was about 30 years old at the time of the incident, filed a complaint on August 20, 2010 against Assange, whom she met at a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm a few days ago.

She accuses him of having unprotected sex with her during her sleep on the night of August 16-17, but Assange has always said she wanted to.

A second complaint by another Swedish woman about sexual assault was dropped in the same period in Stockholm because of the limitation period, but Assange's arrest could reopen the case.