British judge hold on Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder arrest warrant

According to CNET reported that a British judge upheld his warrant for arrest despite the withdrawal last month of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. According to Bloomberg, Judge Emma Arbuthnot dismissed calls from Assange’s lawyers at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court said: “I am not persuaded the warrant should be withdrawn.”

By Cancillería del Ecuador [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Since 2012, Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in order to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault charges. Assange has always denied allegations of sexual assault. Although last year the Swedish prosecutor abandoned the case because he was unable to extradite him, Assange violated the bail provisions of the UK police warrant in 2012. Assange believes that the U.S. government will take the opportunity to prosecute him on charges of espionage.

Assange founded the WikiLeaks website in 2006. WikiLeaks released thousands of e-mails to the personal mailbox of the chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign team during the 2016 presidential campaign.