Wikileaks: Swiss bank freezes Julian Assange's account

The Swiss submit office's bank, PostFinance, has frozen the accounts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. frontarticle myarticledirectory

The whistle-blowing web page says the freeze features a defence fund and private assets worth 31,000 euros.

Wikileaks has published countless secret US diplomatic cables, angering the US government and triggering moves by many companies such as PayPal and Amazon to conclude their solutions.

At the same time, a warrant for Mr Assange's arrest has reached the uk authorities.

Sources have instructed the BBC that the European Arrest Warrant for Mr Assange arrived on Monday afternoon.

Swedish prosecutors want to query Mr Assange in connection with allegations of rape, which he denies.

He is thought to be in hiding somewhere in south-east England. The moment the police have located him, he could be anticipated to appear at a magistrate's court inside 24 hrs, pending extradition to Sweden, says the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner.
Setbacks for Wikileaks

Sweden first issued an arrest warrant for Mr Assange on 18 November nevertheless it was invalidated by a procedural error. A fresh warrant was issued on two December.

The move by Switzerland's PostFinance to freeze the Wikileaks accounts would be the latest setback to hit the whistle-blowing web page seeing that it commenced publishing the US cables last week.

In a assertion on its web page, PostFinance explained Mr Assange had "provided fake details regarding his spot of residence" during the account opening procedure.

"(Mr) Assange entered Geneva as his domicile. Upon inspection, this details was uncovered to be incorrect.

"(Mr) Assange can not supply proof of residence in Switzerland and therefore does not meet the standards to get a customer relationship with PostFinance. For that reason, PostFinance is entitled to close his account."

For its part, a Wikileaks assertion says it and Mr Assange have lost one hundred,000 euros in assets inside a week.

"Late last week, the net payment giant PayPal froze 60,000 euros of donations to the German charity the Wau Holland Basis, which have been targeted to advertise the sharing of understanding via Wikileaks," Wikileaks explained inside a assertion.
'Verging around the criminal'

On Monday, Wikileaks introduced an intensive listing of amenities all around the entire world that, according to the latest leaked cables, the US describes as critical to its nationwide security.

The listing features pipelines, communication and transport hubs.

Several UK websites are listed, such as cable locations, satellite websites and BAE Programs crops.

It is probably essentially the most controversial document however from the Wikileaks organisation, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

Former UK Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind explained WikiLeaks' steps have been "verging around the criminal".

He instructed the BBC: "It's not just negligence, it really is not just stupidity, it really is a thing which can be of energetic assistance to terrorist organisations."

UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox echoed Sir Malcolm's remarks, stating: "I imagine you should ask about the motives for those who're behind several of the WikiLeaks materials. Do they see themselves as some sort of force of anarchy?

"These are some feedback, these are selective leaks intended to drive a wedge in between us and also the Americans and I do not imagine we must tolerate that."