Wikileaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has been arrested after seven years of asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, on behalf of the United States, who are seeking his extradition.

Educador recently withdrew Assange’s asylum, citing bad behavior, like attacking guards, and “violations of international conventions,” such as setting up cameras and electronic interference equipment.

London’s Metropolitan Police were invited, by the Ecuadorian ambassador, into the embassy to collect Assange, who was arrested for failing to surrender to the court.

Assange had been in London’s Ecuadorean embassy since 2012, after seeking asylum from extradition in Sweden, under an international arrest warrant, on a rape allegation, as well as for skipping British bail.

Although the rape allegations were dropped, Assange remained in the embassy out of fear of extradition to the U.S. due to his association with numerous documents impacting U.S. election and military operations, which Assange has denied.

Assange is best known for setting up Wikileaks, an international organisation that publishes classified government information and news leaks.

Wikileaks made headlines in 2010, when Assange leaked footage showing U.S. soldiers shooting 18 civilians from a helicopter in Iraq, embarrassing the American government.

Assange has also been accused of aiding Russian intelligence in leaking over 20,000 emails and campaign documents from then-candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

About a week before his detainment, Wikileaks was notified from a confidential Ecuadorian source that Assange would be expelled in “hours or days,” and that the UK had already made an agreement for his arrest.

Assange’s team then released a statement saying that his expulsion from the embassy would be a violation of “international refugee law.”

Assange is set to appear in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court for sentencing and will be sent to the United States to face numerous charges.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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