A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in the Netherlands in connection with cyber attacks on MasterCard and PayPal by Wikileaks sympathisers. According to the Public Prosecution Office, the boy was arrested in The Hague.

WikiLeaks supporters around the world have carried out digital attacks on finance companies which have refused to transfer money to WikiLeaks accounts. The MasterCard site was down for ten hours on Wednesday. According to Dutch public television news broadcaster NOS, the coordination of the attack was organised from the Netherlands. It is not known what the role of the boy, who has confessed to the so-called DDos attacks, was. His computers have been confiscated. More arrests could follow.

A group calling itself "Anonymous" has threatened anyone with an anti-WikiLeaks agenda. The groups says it has 4000 "hacktivists" willing to help the whistle blower site. NOS reports that "hacktivists" are planning to stage a cyber attack on the site of internet retailer Amazon for removing Wikileaks from one of its servers.

The founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange was arrested on Tuesday after turning himself in to the police in London. The Australian could be extradited to Sweden to face rape charges under the Scandinavian country's  strict rape laws.

WikiLeaks publications have recently embarrased the US government, after thousands of cables between the US and its embassies were revealed.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide