A bearded and shouting Julian Assange was pulled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and hauled into court Thursday, the start of an extradition battle for the WikiLeaks founder who faces U.S. charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents.
Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday he was found guilty of failing to surrender to the court.
He now faces US federal conspiracy charges related to one of the largest ever leaks of government secrets.
The UK will decide whether to extradite Assange, in response to allegations by the Department for Justice that he conspired with former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to download classified databases.
He faces up to five years in US prison if convicted on the charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
5 Responses
This isn’t about press freedom. He hacked into classified government systems with the intention of causing harm to others. It was not for the greater good.
Eric Snowden on the other hand was a whistle blower. He found issues he felt were wrong and took the information to the press (The Guardian) to be published. Exposing those issues were for the greater good.
I agree… Assange did not do this for freedom of the press so much as to create Anarchy and stir up shit.
Assange should be graced with being properly acquainted with the water Board at Gitmo
Five years in jail? Thats it?? Here i thought he was looking at life in a supermax prison from the way the media was talking about this case. Oh brother. I now view this Assange guy as kinda a pussy now.
Great article on the AP about how bad a house guest Assange was. I can’t believe Ecuador put up with him for so long.