Assange accuses Obama of exploiting Arab Spring in campaign

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused President Barack Obama on Thursday of seeking to exploit the Arab uprisings for personal political gain, as he addressed a sideline meeting of the UN General Assembly via videolink from his hideout at a London embassy.

The Australian activist has sheltered inside Ecuador’s embassy in London - beyond the reach of British police - since June 19, when he sought refuge after he exhausted all legal routes to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations.

Assange and his supporters claim that the Swedish sex case is part of a Washington-orchestrated plot to make him stand trial in the United States over his work with WikiLeaks, which has published thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and other documents. Both Sweden and the US reject that claim.

At a sideline meeting organised by Ecuador, the activist attempted to draw parallels between himself and the instigators of the Arab Spring - claiming that they had all been let down by Obama.

“It must come as a surprise to Tunisians for Barack Obama to say the US supported the forces of change in Tunisia,” Assange said, speaking from Ecuador’s tiny apartment-sized London mission.

He claimed that uprisings across the Arab world had been inspired, in part, by his organisation’s disclosures about despotic rulers, including Tunisia’s deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Assange claimed that Obama - whose administration he accuses of building a criminal case against WikiLeaks and of harassing its staff - was seeking to exploit the reforms of the Arab Spring during his reelection campaign.