Scotland Yard 'will arrest wanted WikiLeaks boss today'



Police know Julian Assange's whereabouts but await correct Interpol paperwork



Amazon boot WikiLeaks off their server after coming under political pressure

In south-east England: Scotland Yard is set to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after a Swedish court today upheld an order to detain him for questioning over allegations of rape

WikiLeaks supremo Julian Assange could be arrested in Britain today over sex allegations.

Scotland Yard detectives were last night preparing to detain the 39-year-old over claims of rape and sexual assault in Sweden.

An extradition warrant is expected to be passed to the Metropolitan Police today or early next week.

They have apparently known for over a month where Australian-born Mr Assange, who is in hiding in south-east England, is staying.

He supplied the force with his contact details upon arrival in Britain in October, said his London-based lawyer.

It today emerged that Mr Assange only escaped arrest yesterday because the Swedish authorities filled out an Interpol arrest warrant incorrectly.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘If an international arrest warrant is legitimately issued and is passed to us and if we know where that person is then of course we would arrest them.’

The internet whistleblower will be the subject of an international manhunt when the Interpol ‘red notice’ is correctly issued.

He was added to the worldwide wanted list amid growing fury in Washington at the mass release of more than 250,000 classified U.S. communiques.

One aide said: 'The inquiry into the criminal nature of the leaks is still at a preliminary stage in Washington, but Sweden clearly thinks the charges against him are serious enough for him to be extradited back there.’

The escalating row over the arrest delay came as Amazon.com kicked WikiLeaks from its servers, forcing the controversial website to move back to a Swedish provider.

Senator Joe Leiberman said Amazon acted after congressional staffers called the company yesterday to inquire about its relationship with WikiLeaks.

Suspect: Julian Assange is wanted by Interpol. He only escaped arrest yesterday after Swedish authorities incorrectly filled out paperwork

The site took up residence on Amazon's self-service Web servers after a rash of Internet-based attacks started Sunday against its Swedish host, Bahnhof.

But Wikileaks was again unavailable for hours today in the U.S., as Amazon's servers stopped responding to requests.

Despite the setback - and Mr Assange’s personal travails - WikiLeaks continues to release diplomatic cables, including some secret correspondence, on its website.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: 'Leaks are an attack on the international community'

WikiLeaks tweeted in response: 'WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech, the land of the free - fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe.'

The planned release of 251,287 documents, of which 291 are currently available, has been condemned by several world leaders, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling it 'an attack on the international community'.

There had been reports that the U.S. was investigating whether Mr Assange had committed treason, but as he is an Australian citizen such charges would not stick.



Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s lawyer, has questioned the timing of Interpol’s warrant, saying his client was being persecuted.

Mr Assange lives a rootless life, has hardly any possessions and uses his Australian passport to stay with friends in various countries.

Prosecutors in Sweden want to question him over alleged attacks on two women during a visit to Stockholm to give a lecture to the Social Democratic Party in August.

He is accused of attacking one woman in Stockholm and then sexually assaulting another woman in the town of Enkoping, 40 miles from the capital, three days later.

Mr Stephens said his client had repeatedly offered to meet Swedish investigators either at the Swedish embassy in London or a UK police station.

‘The allegations against him are false and without basis,’ he added.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange and other staff were in hiding in an undisclosed location outside London.

'If you have people calling for your assassination it is wise to keep a low profile,’ he said. 'He is in a secret location working on the project. Julian says he is innocent and I believe him.’

He added that Mr Assange would disclose his location and clear his name ‘in due course’.

The WikiLeaks founder has not been seen in public since a press conference in Geneva on November 5.