Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, emerged briefly from his refuge in London’s Ecuadorean embassy yesterday to call on Barack Obama to end the US “witch hunt” against his organisation.
After days of speculation about how he would make a public appearance without straying on to British soil and risking arrest, Mr Assange spoke from the first-floor balcony of the embassy’s Knightsbridge premises.
“The US must dissolve its FBI investigation . . . it must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful,” he said, urging the US president to “do the right thing”.