Assange house arrest leads to rundown in Wikileaks

Calcutta News.Net
Thursday 16th June, 2011

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has admitted his continued home detention in the UK is affecting the work of his famous website.

The Australian whistle blower has rocked the political, military and diplomatic world in the past years with Wikileaks, which last year released hundreds of thousands of secret and candid US State Department and military documents.

With Washington acutely embarrassed by the leaks, Assange was detained in London shortly after.

He has spent six months at a country estate in England preparing to fight an extradition order to Sweden where sexual assault charges have been laid.

He has not been charged with a crime in the UK.

Despite having influential supporters, Assange is currently required to wear an electronic tag and report to police daily.

Assange supporters have accused Britain of spying on him and have accused spy agencies of placing licence plate identifying cameras around his home.

The 39-year-old has told the Daily Telegraph the conditions are making it impossible for him to carry out Wikileaks work.

In a statement he said: "It makes it difficult for us to safely do our work. We cannot safely meet with people who have information for us or our supporters who are in some very difficult circumstances. It is extremely easy to surveil our communications and whoever comes to meet us personally."

Assange has maintained that sexual assault claims against him by two women are politically motivated.

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