WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Westminster Magistrates Court, after he was arrested in London, Britain April 11, 2019. — Reuters: Julian Assange has been widely denounced as a conspiracy theorist fleeing from justice, but the revelation Thursday of a US extradition warrant against the transparency campaigner supports a key reason he gave for going into hiding.
Assange had always denied the Swedish allegations, saying they were politically motivated and expressing fears of a plot to transfer him to the United States to face trial there. But the United States and its allies accused him of risking lives by revealing information on sources, intelligence techniques and key infrastructure sites.
When in 2016 a UN panel declared that Assange had been detained arbitrarily, one of his previous media partners, The Guardian, dismissed the idea and said he should face justice. As a teenager he discovered a talent for computer hacking, and although he has pleaded guilty to 25 such offences, he has only ever walked away with fines.
Ecuador’s then president, Rafael Correa, said Assange’s human rights could be at risk and offered him refuge, but his successor Lenin Moreno, who took office in 2017, has had less patience.