Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been arrested in London.
The Metropolitan Police arrested the 39-year old this morning, on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant, as he voluntarily turned himself into a police station. He will appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court later.
Assange is accused by the Swedish authorities of sexually assaulting two women. He has said the charges are wrong and are part of a campaign against him as Wikileaks reveals a raft of confidential government communications.
Last week, Assange said Wikileaks would reveal data demonstrating "unethical" behaviour at a top US bank. Large pharmaceutical and energy companies would also be targeted in leaks, he said.
Yesterday the British national security adviser ordered government departments to review their IT defences in the wake of the leaks.
Sir Peter Ricketts asked for assurances that all departments’ security technology is up to date.
The UK clampdown comes as US authorities take an increasingly strong stance against Wikileaks.
US Army Private First Class Bradley E. Manning has already been charged with mishandling and transferring classified information in connection with the leaks. He is believed by some to have passed the material to WikiLeaks.
President Obama has ordered an urgent of US government IT security, but Republican politicians have taken a tougher line. Sarah Palin, widely tipped as a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, last week said Assange should be targeted in the way the US seeks out Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Wikileaks was also forced to set up alternative hosting after Amazon dropped its cloud services for the site, and after the domain also came under serious security attacks.