Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɑːnʒ/ ə-SAHNZH;[3] né Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from Chelsea Manning, a former United States Army intelligence analyst:[4] footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, U.S. military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Julian Assange
- Australia
- Ecuador (2017–2021)
- Editor
- publisher
- activist
1987–present
Founding WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks Party (2013–2015)
-
Teresa Assange(m. 1989; div. 1999)
Assange was raised in several towns in Australia until his family settled in Melbourne in his mid-teens. He became involved in the hacker community and was convicted for hacking in 1996.[5][6][7] Following the establishment of WikiLeaks, Assange was its editor when it published the Bank Julius Baer documents, footage of the 2008 Tibetan unrest, and a report on political killings in Kenya with The Sunday Times.
In November 2010, Sweden issued a European arrest warrant for Assange for allegations of sexual assault.[8] After losing his appeal against the warrant, he breached his bail and took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012.[9] He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012[10] on the grounds of political persecution and fears he might be extradited to the United States.[11] In 2013, he launched the WikiLeaks Party and unsuccessfully stood for the Australian Senate.[12][13] Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in 2019.[14]
On 11 April 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities.[15] The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested.[16] He was found guilty of breaching the United Kingdom Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.[17] The U.S. government unsealed an indictment charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Manning.[18] In May 2019 and June 2020, the U.S. government unsealed new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers.[19][20][21] Assange was incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh in London from April 2019 to June 2024, as the United States government's extradition effort was contested in the British courts.[22][23][24]
In June 2024, Assange agreed a plea deal with the American prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents.[25][26] Under the terms of the deal, U.S. prosecutors sought a sentence that allowed for his immediate release. He was ordered to instruct WikiLeaks to return or destroy unpublished documents and provide an affidavit. Following the hearing Assange departed for Australia and arrived in Canberra on 26 June 2024.[27]
Imprisonment in the UK[edit]
After his arrest on 11 April 2019, Assange was incarcerated at HM Prison Belmarsh in London.[434]
After visiting Assange in prison on 9 May 2019, Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, concluded that "in addition to physical ailments, Mr Assange showed all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress, chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma."[435][436] The British government said it disagreed with some of his observations.[437]
On 13 September 2019, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange would not be released on 22 September when his prison term ended because he was a flight risk and his lawyers had not applied for bail.[438] She said when his sentence came to an end, his status would change from a serving prisoner to a person facing extradition.[438]
On 1 November 2019, Melzer said that Assange's health had continued to deteriorate and his life was now at risk. He said that the UK government had not acted on the issue.[439][440] On 30 December 2019, Melzer accused the UK government of torturing Assange. He said Assange's "continued exposure to severe mental and emotional suffering... clearly amounts to psychological torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."[441][442]
On 17 February 2020, Australian MPs Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen visited Assange and pressed the UK and Australian governments to intervene and stop him from being extradited.[443][444] Between November 2019 and February 2020, concerns about Assange's health and the conditions of his detention were raised by members of the medical profession who signed petitions on his behalf.[445][446]
On 25 March 2020, Assange was denied bail after Judge Baraitser rejected his lawyers' argument that his imprisonment would put him at high risk of contracting COVID-19.[447] She said Assange's past conduct showed how far he was willing to go to avoid extradition.[447]
Assange has been confined to his cell at HM Prison Belmarsh for 23 hours per day and given one hour of recreation per day conducted inside. After a visit to Assange in December 2023, writer Charles Glass observed that Assange was pale. Assange told Glass that he had accumulated two hundred and thirty-two books while in Belmarsh.[448]