Following today’s decision by the Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, in relation to the Swedish authorities investigation into Julian Assange the Metropolitan Police Service’s position is:
Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012. The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy.
Whilst Mr Assange was wanted on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for an extremely serious offence, the MPS response reflected the serious nature of that crime. Now that the situation has changed and the Swedish authorities have discontinued their investigation into that matter, Mr Assange remains wanted for a much less serious offence. The MPS will provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence.
The MPS will not comment further on the operational plan.
The priority for the MPS must continue to be arresting those who are currently wanted in the Capital in connection with serious violent or sexual offences for the protection of Londoners.”
Metropolitan Police Service strengthens covert plan at Ecuadorian Embassy after removing dedicated 24/7 guards
Since Julian Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in June 2012, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has maintained a police presence at the Embassy.
Julian Assange was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in December 2010 and his extradition ordered him to answer serious criminal allegations in Sweden. He is subject to arrest under Section 7 of the Bail Act, for failing to surrender to custody on 29 June 2012 for removal to Sweden.
Whilst the MPS remains committed to executing the arrest warrant and presenting Julian Assange before the court, it is only right that the policing operation to achieve this is continually reviewed against the diplomatic and legal efforts to resolve the situation.
As a result of this continual review the MPS has today Monday, 12 October withdrawn the physical presence of officers from outside the Embassy.
The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the Embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him. However it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence.
The MPS will not discuss what form its continuing operation will take or the resourcing implications surrounding it.
Whilst no tactics guarantee success in the event of Julian Assange leaving the embassy, the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him.
This decision has not been taken lightly, and the MPS has discussed it with the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A significant amount of time has passed since Julian Assange entered the Embassy, and despite the efforts of many people there is no imminent prospect of a diplomatic or legal resolution to this issue.
The MPS has to balance the interests of justice in this case with the ongoing risks to the safety of Londoners and all those we protect, investigating crime and arresting offenders wanted for serious offences, in deciding what a proportionate response is.
Like all public services, MPS resources are finite. With so many different criminal, and other, threats to the city it protects, the current deployment of officers is no longer believed proportionate.”
Craig Mackey QPM (Deputy Commissioner, Metropolitan Police Service): These are diplomatic premises.It is actually extremely difficult – I would suggest – under international law to do some of the things you infer or suggest in the way you asked the question. That is probably as far as I could go.
The Overt Surveillance
In October 2015 the overt surveillance of Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by uniformed Metropolitan police officers was terminated after occurring costs of £13.2 million. The official explanation for the termination was given by the Metropolitan police as “no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence” and it was taken after “the MPS has discussed it with the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office”. Yet, MetPol also confirmed that it “will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him”. At the time the UK government was engaged in an adversarial legal process at a UN body against an action by Julian Assange’s legal team to have his detention declared arbitrary. This body was reaching the end of its deliberation at the time the Metropolitan Police was sitting down with the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to discuss the Assange surveillance costs and the UN ruling would have been eminent and predictable. During that meeting the decision was made to withdraw the uniform police officers. When a few weeks later, in December 2015, the UNWGAD reached its decision that Julian Assange was Arbitrarily Detained by the UK and Sweden the uniformed MetPol Offices had already been removed.
When the UNWGAD ruling was published on 5th of February 2016, the world’s media turned their attention to the Ecuadorian Embassy and its balcony, from where a measured Assange declared: ‘How sweet it is!…this is a victory that cannot be denied’ the overt surveillance conducted by uniformed police was no where to be seen, the police presence, as a backdrop to the cameras had gone together with clear evidence of the full force of state power and repression.
At the London Assembly: surveillance cost and recouping it via central government
10 days after the removal of the uniformed police, during a London Assembly (a 25 member elected body tasked with scrutinised London Mayor’s spending) Q&A session with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, the cost of surveilling Julian Assange at the embassy is being discussed: (see below screenshots of the minutes) [1]
The Overt and Covert surveillance continues
There was covert surveillance targeting Julian Assange and the Ecuadorian Embassy since the moment he entered it. From the presence of a 2 metre long electronic intercept antenna stationed on top of a MetPol ‘mobile conference room’ parked at Hans Crescent to undercover police stationed at nearby buildings and robot surveillance cameras. Other units of state law enforcement have also been involved in this surveillance outside MetPol; as cost centres they are excluded from public scrutiny and therefore we cannot investigate them.
But let’s not forget what the MetPol said in October 2015 in relation to surveillance: “will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest” Julian Assange. They also said that: ” Covert plan at Ecuadorian Embassy strengthened after removing dedicated guards” and “Metropolitan Police Service strengthens covert plan at Ecuadorian Embassy after removing dedicated 24/7 guards”
The cost of this covert surveillance pre October 2015 was never declared by the MetPol. After October 2015 it became more important for the public to know this cost element of surveillance since it was increased. Yet, the MetPol has refused to tell the British and international public about this cost stating many reasons, and it is important that they are listed:
We are told that the Met cannot comment on the cost on any covert operations. [2]
2. Over 30 questions by London Assembly Members to two consecutive London Mayors about the cost of surveillance revealed only the cost of uniform officers standing guard during 16 months, surrounding the embassy to the cost of £13.2 million. No other cost has been identified of the covert and overt MetPol surveillance operation lasting 79 months and counting. The Mayor pretends no other costs are budgeted or exist. [3]
3. Freedom of Information Access Requests to MetPol about the overall costs have been declined on the basis of Law enforcement, National Security, International Relations and even Health and Safety. [4]
Conclusion
The persistent secrecy regarding the public resources spent on the surveillance of Julian Assange and the Ecuadorian Embassy undermines the proper checks and balances of Mayor’s spending power. It is a failing of accountability when information in the public interest is kept secret by the London Mayor. It is also a failing of the London Assembly Members tasked to scrutinise public spending by the London Mayor. Such blatant lack of accountability and transparency in the matter raises questions about the motivation of hiding the costs including potential illegality of surveillance methods.
[2]. “We are told that the Met cannot comment on the cost on any covert operations and are only able to offer limited information about any operational plans.” London Assembly member Unmesh Desai reply to my enquiry August 2017.
“The Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) is located at the Albanian Ministry of Defense and manages a variety of security assistance programs. These programs provide training and equipment to support the modernization of Albania’s military as well as humanitarian assistance. (United States European Command)” [1]
And so we learn from WikiLeaks latest release of searchable original documents that the US Embassy in Tirana organises and pays for the participation of hundreds of Albanian military personnel and their equipment to Military Exercise Combined Resolve for at least two years 2017 and 2018. Tenders for commissioning transport from Albania to Hofenfels are very revealing.
“Combined Resolve X includes approximately 3,700 participants from 13 nations at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Area. In 2018 it took place between April 9 and May 12, 2018. In a training area known as “the Box,” coalition forces, led by the Polish Army 12th Mechanized Division, with soldiers from Lithuania, Romania, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Georgia and Czech Republic, square off against an opposing force comprised of U.S. Soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment and soldiers from the Ukrainian, Slovenian, Romanian and Latvian Armies.” [2]
For 2017 they financed the participation of the Albanian military participants in both Combined Resolve exercises VIII and IX with at least 132 personnel including 8 tonne of military equipment and ammunition for VIII and 117 personnel for IX [4]. In 2018 the number was lower at 113 people for Combined Resolve X [5] and 100 military personnel for Combined Resolve XI [6]
Interestingly the transport route is specified via Bari, Italy, which implies first a naval crossing at Adriatic sea, followed by the longer road route to Germany via Italy and Switzerland rather than through Montenegro,Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, which is a faster route.
By: ‘Australia’ is a human rights abuser! · @BeeDemocracy
transcript: Lauri Love @ Solidarity Vigil for Julian Assange 19/06/2018 #Unity4J
Hello? Hey.
Okay, hi everyone, I’m Lauri Love.
I’m here today to support my friend Julian Assange who, as you know, has been arbitrarily detained for over 7 years, 6 years inside this embassy.
But I’m also here, as Ciaron alluded to, because I haven’t been kidnapped and taken to a country I’ve never visited a thousand miles overseas, to be locked up for 99 years potentially – i.e. the rest of my life – because I was accused of being involved in some online activism.
After the death of a very wonderful young man called Aaron Swartz, who was an internet wunderkind who successfully opposed some terrible legislation in the USA in 2001 that would infringe upon internet freedoms, and who had associations with Wikileaks. And a year later, because he committed the “crime” in inverted commas of downloading too much journal articles from MIT, a case was made against him, the secret service took it over and he was persecuted, I believe, to make an example of him as a activist for information transparency and as a person standing up for oppressions on the internet and fighting for democracy.
Unfortunately, because of the injustices of the US criminal justice system, Aaron Swartz was facing 30 years in prison and millions of dollars of fines, again, for merely downloading scientific articles that he had permission to view, because of the problems with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Sadly, Aaron Swartz, being faced with a choice that he couldn’t accept either alternative of, because of the plea bargaining system that coerces and bullies defendants in 97% of cases to pleading guilty and not having their fair chance in trial, Aaron committed suicide, because of the injustice and the oppression against him. In response to Aaron’s death, there was an activist campaign targeting, via the internet, US government systems to send a message to reform this criminal justice system.
Some time though afterwards I was arrested by our national crime agency who dressed up as UPS delivery men to break into our house under false pretences, and a year later I was requested extradition from 3 separate states of the US and where I would have faced 99 years in prison. And I would not be here today, were it not for the fact that I successfully fought an appeal against that extradition, which I wouldn’t have been able to do had it not been for the help of the Courage Foundation, an organization to defend whistleblowers and hacktivists to provide advocacy and action for them. And that organisation came out of Wikileaks and Julian Assange and their support for Edward Snowden, after his heroic act of whistleblowing massive unlawful surveillance of the public.
And, so because I’m only here because of the solidarity that I have received, and because I’m here despite an extradition treaty between the UK and the United States that does not require a shred of evidence to be shown that any crime has been committed, let alone prove to any standard of reasonable doubt. And as I said earlier, if somebody enters the US criminal justice system at the federal level, their chances of even having a trial, having the chance to have their day in court and acquit themselves is only 3 percent. So, out all of the people here, less than five of you, less than three of you would get a trial. Unfortunately, there is a very real prospect, despite the fact that it’s continuously, not denied, but refused to even be answered by the metropolitan police and the UK government, there is a realistic prospect that Julian Assange would be subject to a similar extradition process.
He would not have the opportunity to… to fight the allegations because the allegations would not be substantiated with any evidence and he would not have any prospect of a fair trial in the United States.
So, I’m here today, in the hopes that the small victory that I won can inspire other people to fight for Julian and against the United States government which for too long has attempted to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction, to be the world’s police, and to… to bully the world into believing that their laws can apply world wide. And Julian Assange could not have committed a crime in the United States just as I could not have committed a crime in the United States, because he has not been there.
And all Wikileaks has done, is provide the public with the very thing that it most needs to have accountability and to have justice and democracy, and that is truth. And without truth, there is no power, there is no ability for the public to speak truth to power. And unless truth can be spoken to power, there are always abuses and accesses and injustices. And we see throughout the period in which Julian has been detained, that the world has become a far less stable place because of the unchecked exercise of power. And the only way to improve that situation is to continue to fight for truth tellers. And there is no better example in my opinion of a truth teller in our current era than Julian Assange.
So, because Julian has fought for the public’s right to know what is done in their name, with their money, with power that is taken from them, often to create terrible suffering and misery in the world through wars and other abuses, because of Julian’s courage that he has taken on such risk and suffered such persecution in order to give us power, we should feel a responsibility to be just as courageous and to stand up and exercise a will to power ourselves to see that justice is done for Julian, that he continues to receive the right that is currently being denied under international obligations, under the Vienna convention, that his asylum is respected and that he is eventually allowed safe passage and to avoid the certain injustice of an extradition to the United States.
And so I hope the people will take some courage, that they will see perhaps that I’ve been fortunate through the help of vast amounts of solidarity and support that I’ve received from the Courage Foundation, from people like yourselves, from organised campaigning, from the sustained effort and believe from people that justice can be done, that we can apply that hope, that victory is possible and we can support Julian and ensure justice will be done, because we will say to the powers that be, to the legal establishment of the UK, to the media, to the public, that we will not allow injustice to occur and that we will continue to fight for the right of truth tellers to continue to empower the public with truth.
What do you do when the state broadcaster you support with your TV License fee forgets the standards it should adhere to and descends to a biased feast of fake news?
More people raised the alarm that ‘blatant lies’ are pushed against Julian Assange. Here is Youtube commentator @GordonDimmack explaining the many errors of the article and “a blant lie”, that “On the subject of cleanliness, however, Mr Assange tweeted earlier this year: “Save water, don’t shower.”” but the quote comes from a fake parody account.
So I wrote to the BBC to complain about this error and they removed the sentence and fake quote but without making a note for the correction in the article. Here is the reply I received from the BBC:
Dear Mrs Butlin
Reference CAS-5128916-8PR6RV
Thank you for contacting us about the BBC News article titled ‘Julian Assange given feline ultimatum by Ecuador’.
I understand you have concerns a tweet was featured that was incorrectly attributed to Julian Assange.
We reviewed the article and can confirm this has been rectified with a correction made as of 17 October.
BBC News aims for a high standard of factual accuracy, and we appreciate the time you’ve taken to bring this to our attention.
Please be assured we’ve shared your feedback with our news teams and senior editorial staff.
Reports around the world about Julian Assange currently offline from publishing platform @Twitter. The #WikiLeaks editor has no other known personal presence in Social Media Platforms. pic.twitter.com/APUqp7yBuI
MetPol Officer from the Diplomatic Protection unit outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Monday 23rd of July 2018
Monday 23 July 2018
Dear Peter Whittle, Susan Hall, Caroline Russell, Nicky Gavron, David Kurten, Andrew Boff, Sian Berry, Caroline Pidgeon, Tom Copley, Fiona Twycross and Shaun Bailey,
Re: The police operation keeping Julian Assange trapped in the Ecuadorian Embassy despite UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention legal opinion that he should be released and compensated.
The London Mayor answer to Andrew Dismore’s question Question 2018/0885 “How much has the policing operation concerning Julian Assange, ensconced in the Ecuadorean Embassy to avoid his arrest warrant cost in total?” was:
“The MPS withdrew the physical presence of officers from outside the Embassy on 12 October 2015. The estimated cost of policing the Ecuadorian Embassy between June 2012 and October 2015 was £13.2m…”
This is simply not true and much needed transparency is needed on the matter of police spending in keeping Julian Assange trapped inside the Embassy. Video footage shared by WikiLeaks of police surveillance, eye witness accounts and statements by the police that covert surveillance continues makes the Mayor’s statements simply false.The physical presence of officers is very much felt and witnessed. A more open and honest answer is needed to reveal the true cost of the covert operation which has been as expensive if not more than the cost of the overt operation?
Metropolitan Police Operation Kudo was not discontinued in October 2015, with the removal of the uniform officers who surveilled 24/7 Julian Assange in view of apprehending him. What has been the true cost of the operation to date?
This week I read reports on the internet that the UK government has authorised the Metropolitan Police to use lethal force to apprehend Julian Assange amidst reports in the UK and international press that his expulsion from the Ecuadorian Embassy is imminent. UK Minister Penny Mordaunt is meeting Ecuadorian Lenin Moreno in London on Tuesday 24th of July during the International Disability Summit at the Queen Elizabeth Park, whilst British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has told the press that “serious charges laid against him’’ and “we want him to face justice’’.
This UK government is backed up in parliament by DUP, a political party with long history of political violence in Northern Ireland. Reports that lethal force is ok to use in the streets of London in the apprehension of a publisher who has never been charged with any crime but has been a beacon in the Transparency in public life, are chilling to the bone. Transparency is very much valued by our modern society that spends millions building entire institutions very much like the London Assembly to scrutinise the spending of public resources and what is being done with our money and in our name as taxpayers and citizens.
Will the London Mayor finally reveal how much money have been spent and are being spent keeping the publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange inside the Embassy under threat of arrest by all means possible including using lethal force by the British Police? Will he confirm that the use of lethal force against Julian Assange is not the legacy he wishes to aspire to.
I have been reading lately a lot of well meaning articles listing the latest assault on WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. It is indeed a difficult period of the struggle for his freedom with many risks but also opportunities.
As our supportive efforts intensify and widen, let’s stay focused!
Vigils and protests on the ground
Vigils and protests online
Activating institutions of civil society (political / non governmental organisations)
The message is clear, stop the persecution of Julian Assange the WikiLeaks editor!
greekemmy 