Julian Assange breaks bail, faces arrest

JULIAN ASSANGE, the founder and front man of Wikileaks, has broken his bail by seeking political asylum from Ecuador and will be arrested.

Assange turned up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London yesterday and asked for asylum. He got this according to a statement from the Embassy, and is welcome to stay there for the time being.

"As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito," said a statement from the embassy.

"While the department assesses Mr Assange's application, Mr Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorian Government."

However, his stay might be a short one, especially if he steps outside the embassy. Scotland Yard has already said that the move breaks Assange's bail conditions and confirmed that he will now be arrested.

One of the conditions of his bail was to be at a certain address between certain times of the day. Being at the Ecuadorian Embassy during these times means that he can be subject to arrest.

"At around 22.20hrs on Tuesday, 19 June, the MPS was notified that Assange had breached one of those bail conditions," said a statement emailed to us by the Metropolitan Police. "He is now subject to arrest under the Bail Act for breach of these conditions." µ