WikiLeaks founder arrested in London, threatens to release most sensitive documents

WikiLeaks founder arrested in London, threatens to release most sensitive documents

The 39-year-old Australian, Julian Paul Assange, founder of the controversial Internet website WikiLeaks was arrested by British police authorities on the strength of a European warrant of arrest. Assange was accused by Swedish authorities with one count of rape, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of unlawful coercion which were allegedly committed sometime in August 2010.

Assange vehemently denied these accusations, said Mark Stephens, his London-based lawyer, alleging that the case was stemmed from a dispute over consensual but unprotected sex with two women. One of the women was quoted as saying that it was indeed a consensual sex but it all ended with abuse. She denied the claims of Assange’s lawyers that the case was orchestrated by the Pentagon.

Stephens on the other hand accused that the case lodged by the Swedish government was orchestrated by Pentagon who he believes is the “unseen hand” trying to pin down his client purposely as a repressive move to contain further leaking of U.S. sensitive documents that had been perceived will affect the national security interest of the United States.

Another London-based lawyer of Assange, Jennifer Robinson, said that her client would likely resist extradition move by the Swedish authorities because she believes he would be turned over to the U.S. government who had been outraged because of the recent publication of the so-called sensitive documents through the Internet.

On the other hand, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was disheartened by the action of one of her constituent saying that the posting on the web of the U.S. diplomatic cables was grossly an irresponsible action. She underscored that the publication of the said classified documents would not have been possible if there was no illegal act committed by Assange.

The Wikileaks founder responded in a written opinion published by an Australian newspaper by saying that her government is trying to stop him from leaking the documents because it doesn’t like him to reveal the truth. He blamed the Australian government that it has no interest of defending him and other WikiLeaks personnel against the many public threats of violence. He expected that the Australian government would be defending one of her citizens but it all boiled down to a wholly unsubstantiated accusation of illegality.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is now putting intense pressure on WikiLeaks and to those people helping it by presently conducting intensive investigations to determine the culpability of Assange and his associates of possible prosecution under the U.S. Espionage Law.

It was reported also that the website is now under heightened hackers’ attack and struggling to stay online amid pressure from world governments. It has been receiving assistance from computer-savvy advocates by setting up hundreds of the same kind of websites all over the world.

Meantime, Assange warned that when arrest will be effected on WikiLeaks staff, the heavily encrypted version of his most important documents will be instantly made public.