Assange may also face a renewed request for his extradition to Sweden to face a rape allegation dating from the same year. Swedish prosecutors released a statement saying their investigation "can be resumed" because the statute of limitation on the alleged rape does not expire until August 2020. Julian Assange is bundled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by London police. Credit:Twitter/RTUKnews Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said Assange's "discourteous and aggressive behaviour" and WikiLeaks' "hostile and threatening declarations" against Ecuador had led to his asylum being withdrawn. "[They] led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable," Moreno said in a video statement. "The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit."

But he also said the UK government had promised, in writing, that Assange would not be extradited "to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty". The Ecuador government last year set strict conditions on Assange's behaviour within the embassy, which Moreno said Assange had broken. "He particularly violated the [rule] of not intervening in the internal affairs of other states," Moreno said. "The most recent incident occurred in January 2019 when WikiLeaks leaked Vatican documents. "Key members of that organisation visited Mr Assange before and after such illegal acts. This and other publications have confirmed the world's suspicion that Mr Assange is still linked to WikiLeaks."

Loading Moreno said Assange had "confronted and mistreated guards" at the embassy, had accessed security files at the embassy without permission, and had kept a secret mobile phone to communicate to the outside world. He also installed electronic and "distortion" equipment in a bid to foil embassy surveillance, and blocked security cameras. WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said it was "completely bogus" to claim Assange had violated the terms of his asylum. "You don't just decide to impose terms for asylum years after the fact," he told an Icelandic news site. "This is a violation of international laws and norms and flies in the face of moral decency." The US Attorney's Office issued a statement saying Assange was arrested on an extradition request "in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer".

The indictment, long anticipated and finally detailed in public court documents on Thursday, alleges that Assange agreed to help Manning crack the password on a secret Department of Defence computer network, where the whistleblower was downloading classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Loading A spokesman for the UK Home Office said it was government policy that nobody would be extradited to a country where they would face torture or the death penalty. However, he declined to confirm if any further promises had been made on Assange. Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Assange would continue to receive consular support from Australia, and officials will seek to visit him in detention. "I am confident... that Mr Assange will receive due process in the legal proceedings he faces in the United Kingdom," she said.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the arrest "goes to show that in the United Kingdom no one is above the law". Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Ecuador's "courageous" decision to withdraw their protection. "Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," he said. "This will now be decided properly, independently, by the British legal system which is respected around the world for its independence and integrity." Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who lives in Moscow under an asylum deal after he leaked classified information in 2013, called the arrest a "dark moment for press freedom".

The arrest comes less than a day after WikiLeaks revealed its founder was under intense surveillance at the embassy, with a trove of private documents and video finding their way to a group of alleged Spanish extortionists. Loading Last week Moreno indirectly blamed WikiLeaks for helping circulate hacked photos of "my bedroom, what I eat and how my wife and daughters and friends dance", which spread on social media. Assange entered the embassy on June 19, 2012 and was granted political asylum after exhausting his appeals against an extradition order to go to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations. A court issued a warrant for his arrest in London for breach of his bail conditions.

Swedish authorities have since closed their investigation saying it couldn't continue without Assange's presence in their country. However it is possible they could renew calls for him to come to Sweden to face court over one allegation. Elisabeth Fritz, the lawyer for a woman who accused Assange in 2010, said it was "a shock to my client that what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened". "We are now going to do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape," she said. "No rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served." A police van parked outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Julian Assange was arrested. Credit:PA Another woman who accused Assange of sexual assault in 2010 said she would be "surprised and sad" if he was handed over to the US. "For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this," Anna Ardin said. "Too bad my case could never be investigated properly, but it's already been closed."