Julian Assange jailed in London as Visa cuts all payments to WikiLeaks


British judge has denied ball for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who told a London court he intends to fight his extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations. Judge Howard Riddle told Assange that he had “substantial grounds” to believe the 39-year-old Australian wouldn’t turn up for subsequent proceedings. He then put Assange into UK custody ahead of an extradition hearing. Mark Stephens, Assange’s British lawyer, has given a brief press conference after the hearing. Meanwhile, Visa has suspended all payments to WikiLeaks. The payment processor’s move leaves the website without its main source of revenue, as the whistleblower largely depends on online donations. Popular online payment company PayPal has already stopped its operations with WikiLeaks. Swiss authorities announced Monday that they closed the new Swiss bank account of the website’s founder Julian Assange, who was arrested Tuesday in London on charges of sexual assault.