[Infowarrior] - Report: Assange to hand himself in to police after arrest warrant is

[Richard Forno]

(From the I'll believe it when I see it department, obvously.   Does that mean the keys to the insurance file will be forthcoming, too? --- rick)

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange to hand himself in to police after arrest warrant issued

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8185247/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-to-hand-himself-in-to-police-after-arrest-warrant-issued.html

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, will hand himself in to police - possibly as early as Tuesday - after a fresh European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish authorities.

By Caroline Gammell, Christopher Hope and Steven Swinford 9:16PM GMT 06 Dec 2010

Mr Assange is expected to voluntarily attend a police station within the next 24 hours, and will then appear in a magistrates’ court. He is wanted over allegations of sexual assault in Sweden.

He is currently in hiding in the south-east of England but police are understood to have the necessary paperwork to arrest him.

Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s British lawyer, said: “We are in discussions about him going to the police by consent.”

Mr Assange suffered another setback on Monday when Swiss authorities closed one of his bank accounts, one of the sources of funding for the WikiLeaks site.

The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of thousands of secret documents in recent weeks.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.

Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Mr Assange for questioning on suspicion of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations.

His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the

British authorities. A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week and were being processed.

Mr Stephens said he would fight any bid to extradite his client. He added that Mr Assange “has been trying to meet with the Swedish prosecutor since August this year”.

Mr Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: “The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”

Mr Assange had allegedly told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident.

News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.

Among the British sites listed are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites, including one in Preston, Lancashire.

The revelations prompted Sir Peter Ricketts, David Cameron’s national security adviser, to order a review of computer security across all government departments.