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http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/assange-unmasked-at-protest-1.1158425

Given his ongoing fight against extradition, you�d have thought Julian Assange might want to keep a low profile.

But the founder of Wikileaks ended up drawing more attention to himself when he turned up at an anti-City protest in London wearing a Guy Fawkes-style mask.

Police used the Public Order Act to demand that the self-styled defender of liberty remove the �disguise�.

He then used a megaphone to address a crowd telling them that protesters should have the right to mask their identities.

Assange, 40, is currently fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning over the rape and sexual assault of two women, which he denies.

On Saturday he turned up at the British end of the worldwide wave of anti-capitalism protests that began in New York on Friday, and led to violence in Rome and Berlin. He arrived wearing a black hooded cape and mask of a type featured in a British film about a pro-democracy activist of the near-future, V For Vendetta.

The controversial Wikileaks chief - who angered the US and other governments by leaking tens of thousands of secret documents from American embassies across the globe - said �it is now impossible for people to move in an anonymous way�. Wearing masks to protests to keep one�s identity secret from the state was a human right, he suggested, a right that should remain until the secrecy surrounding Swiss bank accounts is swept away.

Assange - who was accompanied by two burly bodyguards - then thanked his supporters, while saying that for the last 310 days he had been suffering �electronically manacled house arrest in Norfolk�. Assange was tagged as part of his bail conditions last December.

The anti-capitalism protests began in New York, where the newly-formed Occupy Wall Street group caused disruption across the city.

[comm]