Revealed
SPY OFF THE HOOK?
Who is Julian Assange and where is he now?
Plus, more on his guilty plea with the United States
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange returns to court in a final attempt to avoid extradition on espionage charges.
The Australian journalist and ethical hacker seeks freedom after spending five years in a UK prison.
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Who is Julian Assange?
Julian Assange is an editor and founder of WikiLeaks, a source that provides news leaks and classified information obtained by anonymous sources.
WikiLeaks rose to prominence in 2010 as it published a series of leaks provided by a US Army intelligence analyst named Chelsea Manning.
The information included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video, the Afghanistan war logs, the Iraq war logs, and Cablegate.
Being in fear of the US government, Assange took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London.
He was granted asylum in Ecuador due to fears of political persecution and extradition to the United States.
Assange remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London for approximately seven years.
He was granted Ecuadorian citizenship in 2018, but the asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with the Ecuadorian authorities in 2019.
Assange has two children with lawyer and now-wife Stella Morris while living at the Ecuadorian embassy.
Most read in The US Sun
The pair tied the knot in March 2022.
He was previously married to Teresa Assange from 1989 to 1999, with whom he has one son.
Julian Assange's partner pleads for 'nightmare to end' over extradition bid
What did Julian Assange do?
Aside from leaking thousands of classified US government information in 2010 and 2011, Assange also allegedly took part in leaking emails Hillary Clinton sent and received when she was Secretary of State as the 2016 presidential election was approaching, according to .
The US Intelligence concluded that the Russian government carried out a hacking campaign as part of broader efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States elections.
In 2018, 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted on criminal charges by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The charges against the Russians included carrying out computer hacking and working with WikiLeaks and other organizations to spread stolen documents.
What are the new charges against Julian Assange?
In May 2019, he was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and was sentenced to serve 50 weeks in a UK prison.
The US government also unsealed an indictment against Assange for alleged computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Manning.
Towards the end of May 2019, the US government also charged Assange with violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
The Department of Justice "broadened" the charges against him in June, claiming he conspired with the web activist group Anonymous.
If convicted, he would have been held in isolation at the maximum-security Supermax jail in Colorado, described as a "fate worse than death" by a former warden.
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Where is Julian Assange now?
In June 2022, Britain’s then-home secretary, Priti Patel, approved the extradition, and the following year, a judge at London’s high court turned down his request for an appeal.
"In this case, the U.K. courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr. Assange," a Home Office spokesperson said via .
"Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights.”
Before the government's decision, he was held at the in the UK.
He suffered a stroke in December 2021 while in prison, with the CPS approving a wedding application a month prior so he could marry Morris.
However, on June 24, 2024, Assange was released from prison in the UK after he agreed to plead guilty to his alleged role in the US government breach.
A statement via read: "Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there.
"He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK."
As per , the plea deal would allow Assange to avoid imprisonment in the United States.
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Assange is expected to appear before the U.S. federal court on the island of Saipan on Wednesday, June 26.
If he is pardoned, he will be free to return to his homeland in Australia.
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