London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested by British police on a European warrant issued by Sweden over allegations of sex crimes including rape, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.
Swedish prosecutors issued the arrest order for the 39-year-old Australian who is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of committing sexual crimes, which he denies.
Police said Assange, at the centre of a row over the release of secret US diplomatic cables, had been arrested at about 9.30am (0930 GMT) on Tuesday by appointment at a London police station under a European Arrest Warrant.
“He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010,” London police said in a statement.
He is due to appear before City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London later on Tuesday..
Earlier, Julian Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens told reporters in London that the Metropolitan Police had called him to say they had received an arrest warrant from Sweden for Assange. Assange has been staying at an undisclosed location in Britain.
"We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent," Stephens said Monday, declining to say when Assange's interview with police would take place.
The 39-year-old Australian was wanted on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in Sweden, and the case could lead to his extradition. Interpol placed Assange on its most-wanted list on November 30 after Sweden issued an arrest warrant. Last week, Sweden's highest court upheld the detention order.
Assange has denied the accusations, which Stephens has said stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex." The lawyer has said the Swedish investigation has turned into a "political stunt."
Another Assange lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said the WikiLeaks founder had voluntarily offered to cooperate with Swedish prosecutors because he "is very keen to clear his name," but his offers have been refused. She said it was "disproportionate" to seek an arrest warrant rather than a formal summons for his interrogation.
"Mr. Assange still has not seen the full allegations against him or the potential charges he faces in a language which he understands, which is English, and this in clear breach of his human rights under the European Convention of Human Rights," Robinson said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The pressure on WikiLeaks mounted from other quarters on Monday: Swiss authorities closed Assange's bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. And WikiLeaks struggled to stay online despite more hacker attacks and resistance from world governments, receiving help from computer-savvy advocates who have set up hundreds of "mirrors" - or carbon-copy websites - around the world.
In one of its most sensitive disclosures yet, WikiLeaks released on Sunday a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the US considers critical to its security. The locations include undersea communications lines, mines, food suppliers, manufacturers of weapons components, and vaccine factories.
Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan called WikiLeaks' disclosure "dangerous" and said it gives valuable information to the nation's enemies.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told a news conference Tuesday that it is "grossly irresponsible" for WikiLeaks to publish items like critical infrastructure lists.
But she backed away from her comment made last week that posting classified US government documents on the WikiLeaks website was an "illegal" act.
After being pressed by reporters to distinguish between leaking the documents and posting them, Gillard said their publication would not have been possible "if there had not been an illegal act undertaken" in the United States. She said police were still investigating whether Assange has broken any Australian laws.
WikiLeaks has been under intense international scrutiny over its disclosure of a mountain of classified US cables that have embarrassed Washington and other governments. US officials have been putting pressure on WikiLeaks and those who help it, and is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted under espionage law.
