Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.
At Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday he was found guilty of failing to surrender to the court.
He now faces US federal conspiracy charges related to one of the largest ever leaks of government secrets.
The UK will decide whether to extradite Assange, in response to allegations by the Department for Justice that he conspired with former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to download classified databases.
He faces up to five years in US prison if convicted on the charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson said they would be fighting the extradition request. She said it set a "dangerous precedent" where any journalist could face US charges for "publishing truthful information about the United States".
Ecuador has said its decision to end Julian Assange's asylum in its embassy in London was taken after a long deterioration in relations - accusing him of improper behaviour, interference in the affairs of other countries and spying.
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From skateboarding to insulting staff For seven years, Julian Assange took refuge in a small office that was converted into a bedroom in Ecuador's embassy in an upmarket neighbourhood of central London, where he lived with his cat, James. It had a bed, sun lamp, computer, kitchenette, shower and treadmill.
During his time there, the 47-year-old WikiLeaks co-founder welcomed guests including Lady Gaga and Pamela Anderson and, from a tiny balcony, addressed supporters and held news conferences.
But relations between him and Ecuador's government worsened under President Lenín Moreno, who took office in 2017. This became evident last year when Assange was given a set of house rules, including paying for internet use, food and laundry, taking better care of his cat and keeping the bathroom clean.
That fuelled speculation that Ecuador had finally had enough.
A photo of Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno lounging in bed with a giant platter of lobster in front of him may have spurred Julian Assange’s eviction from the country’s London embassy.
The snapshot — highly embarrassing to the left-wing Moreno, whose country is reeling under financial strain — was among 200 private e-mails, texts and documents posted to the anonymous Web site INApapers.org early last month.
Moreno blamed Assange’s WikiLeaks for the publication of the damning trove, which also included other photos of the president and his wife on lavish European vacations.
In a radio interview, Moreno griped that “photos of my bedroom, what I eat and how my wife and daughters and friends dance” were leaked.
“Assange cannot lie or, much less, hack into private accounts or private phones,” Moreno raged.
The erratic behaviour of Julian Assange during his self-imposed exile has been dramatically captured in videos and documents obtained by MailOnline.
Assange's seven-year stay in Ecuador's embassy in central London resulted in a bizarre existence, making him an eccentric Robinson Crusoe type figure who resorted to desperate means to keep himself occupied.
The newly-emerged videos show Assange, 47, with fists clenched and his arms pumped as he frantically boxes with an imaginary sparring partner.
Assange: Within Washington's grasp? When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forced out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week, the debates that appeared on the airwaves, online and in print went to the core of what constitutes journalism.
Assange's supporters denounced his arrest as an assault on freedom of information; a potential threat for journalists around the world who expose secrets in the public interest.
Others maintain that WikiLeaks traffics in raw data, not news stories - that Assange does not deserve the legal protection that real journalists get.
Look beyond the law, however, and you will find there is no escaping the politics of this story - and the mainstream media's own role in it.