Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will surrender to British police after they received a European Arrest Warrant on Monday, a BBC report has said.
Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens told the BBC that Assange will agree to meet with police.
“We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with the police by consent in order to facilitate the taking of the question and answer that is needed,” he told the British news agency.
The latest development in the Wikileaks drama follows Britain’s receipt of an arrest warrant issued by the European Union (EU) on behalf of Sweden, legally binding the U.K. to extradite Assange if they hold him in custody.
The warrant is being reviewed and processed by Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency and will be disseminated to the London Metropolitan Police, as Assange is believed to be in the London area or in neighboring southeast England, according to the BBC.
Also on Monday, Swiss bank PostFinance froze Assange’s account, alleging in a statement on its website that “Assange provided false information regarding his place of residence when opening the account.”
The BBC reported that the founder of the leaks website has 31,000 euros in the account.
The freeze is the latest in a slew of setbacks for Wikileaks, which has come under heavy pressure after releasing U.S. diplomatic cables in November that sparked condemnation from the United States and other international governments.
Last week, Wikileaks was forced to change its domain name away from its wikileaks.org address, transferring to a Swiss domain at wikileaks.ch.
The controversial leaks website also faced repeated denial of service attacks since its latest leak on Nov. 28, and also had its Amazon and PayPal services discontinued.
Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens told the BBC that Assange will agree to meet with police.
“We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with the police by consent in order to facilitate the taking of the question and answer that is needed,” he told the British news agency.
The latest development in the Wikileaks drama follows Britain’s receipt of an arrest warrant issued by the European Union (EU) on behalf of Sweden, legally binding the U.K. to extradite Assange if they hold him in custody.
The warrant is being reviewed and processed by Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency and will be disseminated to the London Metropolitan Police, as Assange is believed to be in the London area or in neighboring southeast England, according to the BBC.
Also on Monday, Swiss bank PostFinance froze Assange’s account, alleging in a statement on its website that “Assange provided false information regarding his place of residence when opening the account.”
The BBC reported that the founder of the leaks website has 31,000 euros in the account.
The freeze is the latest in a slew of setbacks for Wikileaks, which has come under heavy pressure after releasing U.S. diplomatic cables in November that sparked condemnation from the United States and other international governments.
Last week, Wikileaks was forced to change its domain name away from its wikileaks.org address, transferring to a Swiss domain at wikileaks.ch.
The controversial leaks website also faced repeated denial of service attacks since its latest leak on Nov. 28, and also had its Amazon and PayPal services discontinued.
