Putin leads backlash over WikiLeaks boss detention

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin led growing support from some world leaders for the beleaguered WikiLeaks founder, describing his detention in Britain as “undemocratic”.

The wave of support for Julian Assange, who sat in a British jail Friday as Sweden sought his extradition on rape charges, came as hackers – dubbed “hack-tivists” – stepped up cyber attacks on those opposed to WikiLeaks.

After taking down the websites of Visa, Mastercard and others, supporters of the whistleblower website tried but failed to knock online retail giant Amazon.com offline.

The loose-knit group of hackers known as “Anonymous” said they would attack the Amazon website as part of what they are calling “Operation Payback”.

The Amazon.com website did not appear to have experienced any downtime, and Anonymous acknowledged defeat on another Twitter feed – then instructed supporters to switch their cyber attacks to the website of Internet payments company PayPal.

Dutch police, meanwhile, said they arrested a 16-year-old who has admitted to staging cyber attacks on on Visa and Mastercard sites in support of WikiLeaks.

The teen, who was “probably part of a larger group of hackers,” will appear before a judge on Friday, said Wim de Bruin, spokesman for the national prosecutor’s office.

Mr Putin railed against the detention of the 39-year-old Mr Assange, the Australian founder of the website which has been releasing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables as well as Pentagon communiques.

“Why was Mr Assange hidden in jail? Is that democracy? As we say in the village: the pot is calling the kettle black,” Mr Putin said.

“I want to send the ball back to our American colleagues,” Mr Putin added.

Despite his defence of Mr Assange, Mr Putin was portrayed in an embarrassing light by some of the leaked cables. In one, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called him a “behind the scenes puppeteer” dissatisfied with his role. Others detailed allegations of high-level Russian corruption and referred to Mr Putin as an “alpha dog”.

His comments echoed Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who expressed “solidarity” with Mr Assange, blasting the Australian activist’s arrest as a blow against “freedom of expression”.

Mr Assange has “exposed a diplomacy that had appeared unreachable,” said Mr Lula.