Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum.
A judge found him guilty of breaching his bail conditions and said he could face up to one year in jail, the U.K. Press Association reported.
“His assertion that he has had not had a fair hearing is laughable. And his behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get past his own self-interest,” Judge Michael Snow said in his decision, according to the Guardian.
READ MORE: Villain or victim of a smear campaign? Julian Assange’s complicated history
Just hours later, the U.S. Justice Department released documents saying Assange had been charged with “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion,” and were requesting his extradition to the country. The charge is in relation to Assange’s alleged work with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, in cracking a password that helped
Manning infiltrate Pentagon computers.
READ MORE: Chelsea Manning jailed after refusing to testify to grand jury on Wikileaks
WATCH: U.S. alleges Assange conspired with intelligence analyst
Assange is expected to remain in U.K. custody until an extradition hearing on May 2.
Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno said a tweet that his government withdrew Assange’s status for repeated violations of international conventions. Moreno described it as a “sovereign decision” due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life.”
WATCH: Assange lawyer asserts ‘dangerous precedent’ set with arrest
Assange took refuge in the embassy in London in 2012 and has been holed up inside ever since.
“Today I announce that that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said in a video statement released on Twitter.
READ MORE: Julian Assange ordered by Ecuador to avoid sensitive topics, improve pet care: reports
Police said Assange has been taken into “custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as is possible.”
“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53 hrs after his arrival at a central London police station,” the police said.
A statement from the U.K. Home Office said he was accused of “computer related offences” by the U.S.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed criminal complaint against Assange, though no details have been publicly announced.
WATCH: U.S. politicians react to arrest of WikiLeaks founder
Video posted online by Ruptly, the agency wing of Russia Today, showed about five to six men in suits forcibly escorting Assange out of the embassy building, surrounding him as he staggered down the steps and boarded a police van.
Police said officers were invited into the embassy by the ambassador following the Ecuador government’s withdrawal of Assange’s asylum.
Assange had not come out of the embassy for years because he feared arrest and extradition to the United States for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange “is no hero and no one is above the law.”
His arrest came a day after WikiLeaks accused the Ecuador’s government of an “extensive spying operation” against Assange.
WATCH: British police wait outside Ecuador embassy after Wikileaks says Julian Assange may be kicked out (April 5)
WikiLeaks claims meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed.
WikiLeaks said in a tweeted statement that Ecuador illegally terminated Assange’s political asylum “in violation of international law.”
WATCH: U.N. torture expert urges Ecuador not to expel Assange from embassy
*with files from Global News
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