From leaks to legal battles: Recap of Assange's WikiLeaks saga
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the US Espionage Act. This plea deal will result in a five-year prison sentence, equivalent to the time he has already served in British custody. The agreement reached on Monday marks an unexpected end to a complex legal journey that spanned over a decade and touched upon issues of national security, press freedoms, politics and diplomacy. Here's a timeline of Assange's legal ordeal.
WikiLeaks: A platform for whistleblowers
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 with the goal of aiding whistleblowers in exposing concealed information. The platform, run by a transnational collective and using servers in countries like Iceland and Sweden, sought classified or restricted material for online publication. In 2009, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning became a significant contributor to WikiLeaks by uploading large volumes of documents from a classified computer network to the site.
Assange's rise to global notoriety and legal troubles
In 2009, Assange gained global attention as WikiLeaks began publishing classified materials. Initially, it appeared that WikiLeaks had multiple sources within the US government, which catapulted Assange into global prominence. However, Manning was later arrested and identified as the primary source. In 2010, Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in relation to a sexual assault investigation. In 2012, after losing his appeal against the warrant, Assange sought asylum from Ecuador and spent seven years at their embassy in London.
WikiLeaks's role in 2016 presidential campaign and aftermath
In 2013, Manning was convicted of most charges, including violations of the Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in prison. In 2016, WikiLeaks published hacked emails from Democrats during the presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. The following year, President Obama commuted most of Manning's sentence shortly before leaving office. In the same year, the Justice Department charged Assange in a complaint related to the Manning leaks, adding another layer to his ongoing legal saga.
Assange's arrest and legal battle against extradition
In 2019, Assange was arrested after Ecuador withdrew his asylum and allowed British police to enter the embassy. The US unsealed the initial indictment against him and added further charges, leading to a prolonged legal fight against extradition. In 2021, a British judge blocked Assange's extradition on the grounds that he might be at risk of suicide if held in an American prison, but the Justice Department appealed this decision.
Assange's plea deal concludes lengthy extradition appeal
From 2022 to 2024, Assange's appeal of his extradition made its way through the British courts. In June 2024, court documents revealed that he had struck a plea deal with the United States. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act in exchange for a five-year prison sentence - time he had already served since his arrest at the Ecuadorean embassy.
