Julian Assange, five days after his arrest: the conviction for conspiracy to the world in abeyance

It was the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, who was in charge of surprise to the world last Thursday. In a video, he reported a decision that marked a clear new separation from his predecessor, Rafael Correa: ending the diplomatic asylum granted to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embbady in London since 2012, and withdraw Ecuadorian citizenship.

This led to the arrest by British forces, motivated by the extradition request from the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to obtain confidential information from the state department. .

"Ecuador is a country that respects the principles of international law, including the institution of asylum.Agreement or withdrawal of this right is a sovereign right of the Ecuadorian State. Mr. Julian Assange's disrespectful and aggressive behavior, the threatening statements of his organization, the allies against Ecuador and especially the violation of international agreements have brought the situation to such an extent that Mr. Assange's asylum is unsustainable and no longer viable, "Moreno announced on April 11.

The first leader of Latin America then explained how the Ecuadorian state covered the costs of Assange's life for six years and ten months and provided his needs at the embbady. In this same announcement, he said that Assange violated the conventions established for political asylum. According to reports, Ecuador spent $ 6.2 million for his stay.

Regarding Assange's "unsustainable" behavior, María Paula Romo, Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, said: "Interference in the business of" other states also includes the interference of Mr. Assange and his Allied organization in domestic politics in Ecuador.[…] We have enough evidence that he is collaborating with the attempts to destabilize this government […] We will not allow Ecuador to become a hacker center and we can not allow illegal activities to take place in the country. "

For his part, the minister, who spoke about suspicious trips to Venezuela and the presence of Russian pirates in Ecuador, added: "During his stay at the London embbady, ​​while he was president Correa and Chancellor M. [Roberto] Patiño, they tolerated things such as Mr. Assange deposited excrement on the walls of the embbady, ​​which is far from the minimum of respect a customer can have in a country that has generously welcomed. "

Undoubtedly, many elements make Julian Assange an otherwise controversial character: the accusations of links between Wikileaks and Russia, the allegations of abuse that hang over him in Sweden and, of course, the flight of Confidential information obtained by an "insider": the soldier and intelligence agent: Chelsea Manning.

Let's review here three keys to an arrest that could lead to the extradition of Assange and a possible conviction for conspiracy in the United States.

1. What did Julian Assange do and why did he shake the world?

Assange is the creator of Wikileaks, a leaky page of confidential documents that, under the slogan "We open governments," has provided the world with clbadified information. The site has published data that has triggered important research on war crimes, spy networks and sensitive political impact issues.

The initiative of this Australian hacker, as a person, awakens divided positions around the world. There are those who claim their importance for access to information in the public interest and those who question their methods and their willingness to circumvent the limits of confidentiality, including with documents referring to the security of different countries. (mostly from the United States).

Just this last aspect is that it gave the site a worldwide fame in 2010, with the leak of thousands of documents of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, obtained thanks to Assange's relations with the soldier Chelsea Manning, intelligence badyst of l & # 39; army.

And it's the documents that talk about war crimes and a kind of spy ring set up in the embbadies and in the State Department itself that eventually put it on the agenda. of the world, especially in the United States. .

2. Why does an arrest take place?

Political change in Ecuador largely explains the changing situation of Assange. Lenin Moreno, vice president of former president Rafael Correa, has clearly expressed his strategy of differentiation from his predecessor. In fact, he distanced himself from the leaders of the "Patria Grande" (Maduro, Evo Morales, Kirchner, among others) and changed the position of Ecuador regarding the situation in the country. Venezuela.

While the accusations in Sweden (one for rape and another for harbadment) they were a huge complication for the creator of WikiLeaks, which ends up marking his destiny this time, it is the request for extradition of the United States. Because? Because it marks a change in the way this country looks at him and his organization. Under the Obama regime, the position seemed clear: the punished were the so-called whistleblowers (or "solplones"). That's to say: agents who, from within state agencies, have leaked information (Manning, in the case of WikiLeaks and Snowden, with their revelations about the state of affairs). espionage in the National Security Agency or NSA, by its abbreviations in English).

What the prosecution establishes is that Assange himself participated in a deceptive maneuver, in complicity with an army officer, to whom Assange helped decipher a word. pbadword to access secret documents. According to the indictment of American justice, Assange reportedly told his informant: "Curious eyes never dry up, according to my experience." After that, according to the prosecution, there would have been the downloading of the state department documents that WikiLeaks would have published thereafter.

3. What implications can it have?

In the journalistic community, there are those who express some concern about the meaning of Assange's fate. Is it in itself a maneuver to criminalize the actions of a site for journalistic purposes? This is the heart of the debate. Edward Snowden, Rafael Correa himself and journalists from different parts of the world who claim the role of WikiLeaks were the first to regard detention and the request for extradition as an affront to freedom of expression.

But those who are more critical have done the same. Washington Post reporter Margaret Sullivan published a few days ago: "Throwing badange to wolves is a bad decision for traditional journalists." The Guardian also recently published an opinion column signed by Trevor Timm and titled: "Assange's imputation is Trump's next step in his war on freedom of the press".

Hillary Clinton, whose image had been heavily damaged by leaking WikiLeaks (related to her campaign) in 2016, said Assange must "answer for what he did" and said: "I think that it is clear that the accusation that was launched does not seek to punish journalism. "