Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Photograph: Getty Images
3.04pm: Assange was refused bail, and will be remanded in custody till 14 December.
3.03pm: AP has this filed its first take on court proceedings:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court on Tuesday he intends to fight his extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations, setting up what could be a drawn-out legal battle.
The 39-year-old Australian appeared before City of Westminster magistrates court after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier Tuesday to face a Swedish arrest warrant.
He was asked whether he understood that he could consent to be extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion.
Clearing his throat, Assange said: "I understand that and I do not consent."
Assange denies the allegations, which stem from a visit to Sweden in August. Assange and his lawyers claim the accusations stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex," and have said the case has taken on political overtones.
Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny has rejected those claims.
Lawyers for Assange and the British government were still arguing on Tuesday over whether Assange should be granted bail.
2.58pm: The journalist John Pilger and the film director Ken Loach have also been seen in court, according to various sources. They together with Jemima Khan are apparently all there to provide surety if bail is granted to Assange.
2.51pm: The two women concerned in the case regarded the used of a condom as a prerequiste for sex, the court heard, according to the legal affairs commentator Joshua Rozenberg, who was in the court.
Rozenberg told Sky News that charges were read out to Assange. In one of the cases Assange was alleged to have had sex with a woman who was asleep, the court heard, according to Rozenberg. The other case allegedly involved coercion, he said.
Assange's lawyers made clear that the case would not finish today, Rozenberg said.
The prosecution, representing the Swedish authorities, objected to bail on two grounds: that Assange failed to surrender and that he should stay in custody for his own protection, Rozenberg reported.
A vehicle carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the rear entrance of Westminster magistrates court in London today. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
2.35pm: Assange sought consular assistance from the Australian high commission, according to Channel 4 News.
Sky claims that members of the commission are inside the court with Assange.
2.33pm: WikiLeaks has put out another appeal for funding. "KEEP US STRONG - DONATE", it tweeted.
With what?
The Press Association news agency has more on Visa's decision to cut off payments:
The card payment operator said an inquiry is under way into how the organisation operates.
The whistle-blowing website has suffered repeated denial of service attacks, moved server, lost its PayPal service and had a key Swiss bank account closed.
WikiLeaks relies on online donations from a worldwide network of supporters to fund its work.
A spokesman said: "Visa Europe has taken action to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks' website pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules."
2.28pm: Assange said he would fight extradition to Sweden, according to the Associated Press news agency.
2.10pm: The socialite Jemima Khan has appeared in the court with Julian Assange, according to Sky News.
Julian Assange is driven into Westminster magistrates court today. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
2.08pm: US defence secretary Robert Gates has welcomed the arrest of Assange. Speaking to reporters on a visit to US troops in Afghanistan, Gates smirked on hearing the news.
"I hadn't heard that, but that sounds like good news to me," he said.
2.07pm: More financial problems for WikiLeaks: Visa says it has suspended all payments to WikiLeaks "pending further investigation".
Earlier MasterCard said: "MasterCard is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products."
2.03pm: Hamid Karzai has been teasing the Americans and David Cameron about WikiLeaks, according to my colleague Polly Curtis, who accompanied Cameron to Kabul.
Making light of what has clearly been a tricky diplomatic period after the WikiLeaks revelations, Karzai said: "You should wait for the British WikiLeaks."
Cameron responded: "We were always nice about you," to which Karzai answered: "Most of the time."
1.58pm: Assange is due to appear in court in the next few minutes, according to a tweet from Channel 4 News.
The freedom on information campaigner Heather Brooke, who worked with the Guardian on the cables, is also there. She just tweeted this:
We've been instructed to switch phones off so no twets for awhile. That's open justice in UK folks. No recording or new media. #wikileaksless than a minute ago via twidroid
Heather Brooke
newsbrooke1.54pm: Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the US Senate's intelligence committee, said Assange "should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage".
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, she says:
The law Mr Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorised person to possess or transmit "information relating to the national defence which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation".
The Espionage Act also makes it a felony to fail to return such materials to the US government. Importantly, the courts have held that "information relating to the national defence" applies to both classified and unclassified material. Each violation is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Photograph: Sky News
1.48pm: Assange's lawyers are likely to argue that the extradition hearing in the UK can't be fair, because of the unprecedented media attention, the Guardian's Afua Hirsch just told Sky News (left).
1.15pm: Afua Hirsch, our legal affairs editor, explains the extradition process and what is likely to happen in the court:
Assange's arrest by police this morning will kickstart the fast-tracked extradition process, using the European arrest warrant system to attempt to return him to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning regarding a rape charge.
Swedish criminal law experts said this morning that little was known about the actual rape allegations Assange is facing in the country, in line with legal requirements to protect anonymity and preserve confidentiality for sex crimes.
However the activation of an EAW by UK police suggests Assange has now been formally charged by Swedish prosecutors, and could face a period of detention in Sweden upon his return.
But Assange's legal team remains determined to fight his extradition on grounds ranging from the failure of authorities to provide him with details of the warrant issued by Sweden, and human rights grounds – including that the WikiLeaks founder may be unfairly deprived of his liberty in Sweden, and that he risks not facing a fair trial.
The media attention surrounding Assange's case is likely to complicate any future criminal proceedings, although the lack of a jury system in Sweden is likely to fuel arguments that he will be protected from public and media interest in the case.
Assange's first appearance at Westminster magistrates court today will be primarily concerned with formalities, including establishing his identity and determining whether he consents to the extradition.
The court will then adjourn for a full extradition hearing, which has to be within 21 days. A key issue will be whether Assange is released on bail during that period. His lawyers are reported to be putting together a generous bail package, including a security of at least £100,000 and a surety – where third parties guarantee to pay the court if he absconds.
Experts say a large bail amount is likely to secure bail, although the crime for which Assange is wanted by Sweden is rape, a serious offence for which bail is often harder to secure.
If extradited to Sweden under the EAW – a process which could be concluded quickly under the fast-track procedure – Assange will be vulnerable to other extradition requests from countries including the US.
1.09pm: Back on the other side of the world, the Press Association news agency has this on Assange's entering the magistrates court in Horseferry Road, London:
Julian Assange was mobbed by photographers as he arrived at court with Mark Stephens and the rest of his legal team.
He is due to appear before District Judge Caroline Tubbs in court one at 2pm, court staff said. Speaking outside court, Stephens said his client is "fine".
Asked about the meeting with police, he replied: "It was very cordial. They have verified his identity. They are satisfied he is the real Julian Assange and we are ready to go into court."
Mark Stephens, lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, outside Westminster magistrates court, London, today. Photograph: Julian Makey/Rex Features
1.02pm: Another key paragraph from Assange's Australian article:
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
12.54pm: Assange's op-ed piece in the Australian has been published.
The paper says these are the main points:
• WikiLeaks is fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
• The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
• (My idea is) to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
• People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars.
• The Gillard government (Australia) is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed.
It is worth quoting Assange's final remarks in full:
The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts: the US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US officials in Jordan and Bahrain want [sic] Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.
Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".
Sweden is a covert member of Nato and US intelligence-sharing is kept from parliament.
The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantánamo Bay. Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian president only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US supreme court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
12.47pm: Assange has entered the court. He went in the back entrance and was accompanied by his lawyers Mark Stephens and Jennifer Robinson. They are due to to examine the charges against him. I was on the phone to my colleague Sam Jones when it happened. This is what it sounded like:
Meanwhile, the Swedish chief prosecutor, Marianne Ny, is planning to release a statement this afternoon on the arrest of Assange, according to Foresight News.
12.30pm: My colleague Robert Booth has more on plans by WikiLeaks to carry on publishing, plus that new video message and the 256 digit encryption code for the rest of the documents.
A group calling itself Justice for Assange is planning a protest outside City of Wesminster magistrates court at 1.30pm.
12.24pm: All the news networks in the US are leading with the Assange story, my colleague Richard Adams rang in to tell me.
NBC Today show anchorman Matt Lauer began today's broadcast with this gravelly-voiced announcement: "The international manhunt for Julian Assange is over."
12.19pm: Here's a lunchtime summary:
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested at a London police station at 9.30am. He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape. He denies the charges. He is due to appear at City of Westminster magistrates at around 2pm.
• WikiLeaks have condemned the arrest as an attack on media freedom. Sources claim that the group currently has no plans to publish an insurance encryption code that will release the remaining, unpublished classified cables. In his online chat with the Guardian last Friday, Assange suggested the code would be released if "something happens to us".
• The release of the cables will continue. The latest disclosures reveal US plans to defend the Baltic states and Poland against Russia.
• Assange has criticised America's handling of the leaks in a comment piece for the Australian, written before his arrest. His supporters also plan to release a prerecorded video message. In his Australian article, Assange says the US is trying to have it both ways by claiming that the contents of cables are not significant and that the release will endanger lives.
• A cyber-war over WikiLeaks appears to be escalating. Supporters of the site are reportedly taking revenge against the Swiss bank that froze Assange's assets, and are now targetting PayPal.
12.07pm: WikiLeaks just tweeted this:
Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal"less than a minute ago via web
WikiLeaks
wikileaks11.54am: WikiLeaks claims the arrest is an attack on media freedom, but it is worth pointing out that one of the claimants making the sexual assault allegations has strongly denied that the charges are trumped up, saying: "The charges against Assange are of course not orchestrated by the Pentagon."
It should also be pointed out of course that Assange strenuously denies the sex assault charges.
The New York Times reports on how the US have been going after Assange over the separate issue of the leaked cables.
Justice department prosecutors have been struggling to find a way to indict Assange since July, when WikiLeaks made public documents on the war in Afghanistan. But while it is clearly illegal for a government official with a security clearance to give a classified document to WikiLeaks, it is far from clear that it is illegal for the organisation to make it public.
The Justice department has considered trying to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, which has never been successfully used to prosecute a third-party recipient of a leak. Some lawmakers have suggested accusing WikiLeaks of receiving stolen government property, but experts said Monday that would also pose difficulties.
11.40am: Internet guru Clay Shirky has an interesting post on WikiLeaks and how America's pursuit of the site opens it up to the charge of hypocrisy:
The leaders of Myanmar and Belarus, or Thailand and Russia, can now rightly say to us: "You went after WikiLeaks' domain name, their hosting provider, and even denied your citizens the ability to register protest through donations, all without a warrant and all targeting overseas entities, simply because you decided you don't like the site. If that's the way governments get to behave, we can live with that."
In this context comments by Hillary Clinton (below) in a Foreign Policy article earlier this year are coming back to haunt her:
Photograph: Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress. But the United States does. We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. And we recognise that the world's information infrastructure will become what we and others make of it.
This challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic. The words of the first amendment to the constitution [guaranteeing freedom of speech] are carved in 50 tons of Tennessee marble on the front of this building. And every generation of Americans has worked to protect the values etched in that stone.
11.28am: WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said the arrest would not derail the release of the cables. "This will not change our operation," he told the Associated Press news agency.
ITV's Kier Simmons tweets that Assange will appear at 2pm, citing a court source.
The Guardian has two reporters at the court. Caroline Davies is inside and Sam Jones is waiting outside in the cold.
Court staff confirmed to Sam that Assange probably won't appear before 2pm.
Caroline texted me this on the scene outside:
Scrum of up to 30 photographers outside Horseferry Road magistrates court. A van arrived with blacked-out windows about 10 minutes ago, but no one could see if it was Assange.
11.19am: The BBC tweets:
WikiLeaks spokesman says Julian Assange´s arrest is an attack on media freedom but won´t stop groupless than a minute ago via TweetDeck
BBC Global News
BBCWorldAssange's article in the Australian will be published in full at 1pm our time, an hour later than we said earlier.
11.06am: The Australian has issued a sneak preview of Assange's op-ed piece due later today:
Mr Assange begins by saying: "In 1958, a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's the News, wrote: 'In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.'"
It goes on to say a few more things about freedom of speech; the "dark days" of corrupt government in Queensland (where Assange was raised); the Fitzgerald inquiry; and it says much about his upbringing in a country town, "where people spoke their minds bluntly".
It says that Australian politicians are chanting a "provably false chorus" with the US State Department of "You'll risk lives! You'll endanger troops!" by releasing information, and "then they say there is nothing of importance in what Wikileaks publishes. It can't be both."
11.02am: More details are emerging about Assange's meeting with the police. He was accompanied by both his British lawyers, Mark Stephens and Jennifer Robinson. The plans for the meeting continued to "chop and change" to prevent the event becoming a media circus, according to sources.
Assange will release a video statement later today. WikiLeaks had threatened to issue an encryption code that would release all of the remaining cables, if Assange was arrested.
But our sources say there are no current plans to do that.
10.53am: Here's that video with comments from Assange's lawyers.
10.45am: A spokesman for City of Westminster magistrates court said Assange must appear before 12.30pm, unless a judge gives special permission for a later hearing.
We do not know what is happening at the moment. We have not been told. 12.30pm is the cut-off time.
If they cannot produce him before then, we will have to wait for a decision from the judge, whether he or she gives permission.
10.41am: As of last night Assange had still not been told of the full allegations against him, his lawyer Jennifer Robinson explained in a video to be published on our site soon.
10.33am: Assange has written a comment piece for the Australian, which is due to be published in about 90 minutes' time.
The paper's Caroline Overington tweets:
Here it is: Julian Assange writes, in hours before his arrest: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mediadiary/index.php #wikileaksless than a minute ago via web
Caroline Overington
overingtonc10.30am: Here's a statement from Metropolitan police:
Officers from the Metropolitan police extradition unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.
Julian Assange, 39, was arrested on a European arrest warrant by appointment at a London police station at 9.30am.
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.
Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster magistrates court today.
Sam Jones is on his way to the court.
Photograph: Carmen Valino for the Guardian
10.26am: Police say Julian Assange (left) has been arrested on Swedish warrant, AP confirms.
10.18am: Sky News is reporting that Assange was arrested at 9.30am. It says he is expected to appear before City of Westminster magistrates court later today.
9.55am: The cyber war over WikiLeaks appears to be escalating, with supporters of the site reportedly taking revenge against the Swiss bank that froze Assange's assets.
Operation Payback is now threatening to go after PayPal after claiming credit for shutting down the website of the Swiss bank PostFinance, Raw Story claims.
The site of the bank is currently unavailable.
On its Twitter account the group said: "PAYPAL.COM IS DOWN! AND YES WE ARE FIRING NOW!!! KEEP FIRING!"
9.40am: We are hanging on every word of Mark Stephens at the moment. This is what he told PA on his way to work:
I haven't even seen the warrant yet. We have got 10 days to do this and a lot of complex schedules to organise.
I am sure it will be announced when it happens. I have not yet spoken to the police.
Stephens declined to say where Assange is and where he expected to be arrested and interviewed.
9.28am: Assange's lawyers have pointed out that he will not be appearing in court today, but is expected to meet police later.
My colleague Sam Jones has been talking to Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens.
Sam emailed this note:
Seems the pre-hearing meeting with police has yet to go ahead and there will be "scheduling" discussions around the magistrates court appearance that could take days to hammer out. If and when it happens, Stephens says, they'll give it out - or the police will leak it.
Last night Stephens told Newsnight that the arrest warrant against Assange was a "political stunt" and that his client had repeatedly offered to talk to the Swedish authorities.
It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law. Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name.
He has been trying to meet with her [the Swedish prosecutor] to find out what the allegations are he has to face and also the evidence against him, which he still hasn't seen.
9.19am: The Daily Mail's Richard Pendlebury travelled to Enkoping in Sweden to examine the alleged sexual assault case against Julian Assange. The Mail has been portraying Assange as a international Bond villain in recent days, and there are plenty of sordid details in Pendlebury's article. But it also examines "several puzzling flaws in the prosecution case".
He says Assange's supporters suspect US dirty tricks:
They argue that the whole squalid affair is a sexfalla, which translates loosely from the Swedish as a 'honeytrap'.
One thing is clear, though: Sweden's complex rape laws are central to the story.
Using a number of sources including leaked police interviews, we can begin to piece together the sequence of events which led to Assange's liberty being threatened by Stockholm police rather than Washington, where already one U.S. politician has called on him to executed for "spying".
8.47am: The WikiLeaks story continues to focus on the fate of Julian Assange as much as the contents of the leaked cables.
Assange was meeting his lawyers Mark Stephens and Jennifer Robinson this morning and is expected to meet police within hours. He will release a video statement later today.
Last night Robinson said: "We have a received an arrest warrant [related to claims in Sweden]. We are negotiating a meeting with police."
Our legal affairs correspondent Afua Hirsch explains how Assange's legal team will fight extradition.
Robert Booth reports on how the net has tightened around Assange since WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of classified cables.
Meanwhile, the US attorney general Eric Holder said his justice department was examining ways to stem the flow of leaked cables, as PayPal and a Swiss bank took action against WikiLeaks.
Here are the headlines on the latest leaked cables.
• Secret Nato plans to defend Baltics from Russia
• Burma general considered Manchester United buyout
• Poland wants missile shield to protect against Russia
• Sudan warned to block Iranian arms bound for Gaza
• US pressured UN climate chief to bar Iranian from job
• Algeria goes from security joke to US ally in MaghrebYou can follow all the previous disclosures and reaction on our other live blogs about the cables. And for full coverage go to our US embassy cables page or follow our US embassy cable Twitter feed @GdnCables.
2010-12-07
WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates | News | guardian.co.uk
via guardian.co.uk
