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full screen A protester who wants to see Julian Assange released outside a court in London in May this year. Photo: Kin Cheung/AP/TT
Spy according to some, freedom of speech fighter according to others. He has been accused of rape in Sweden, threatened with deportation to the United States and spent seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy.
Here are all the tours around Julian Assange.
2006: Julian Assange, born in 1971 in Australian Townsville, co-founded Wikileaks.
2010: Wikileaks publishes hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents about, among other things, the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which reveal US war crimes and human rights violations.
Among the organization’s most high-profile revelations is a secret video recording, recorded by the US military, showing how a US Apache helicopter attacked and killed at least twelve people, including two Reuters journalists, in Baghdad in 2007.
August–December 2010: Julian Assange is arrested and detained in his absence on suspicion of sexual offenses against two women during a visit to Sweden. The Australian, who is in the UK, surrenders to British police and is fitted with a foot shackle.
May/June 2012: Great Britain decides that Julian Assange should be handed over to Sweden. He then barricades himself in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he will spend seven years. During his time at the embassy, he becomes the father of two children.
May 2017: The Swedish preliminary investigation against Assange is closed.
April 2019: The WikiLeaks founder is arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy by British police. The United States announces that an indictment of espionage and data breach exists against Assange and immediately requests his extradition.
Assange’s lawyers dismiss the American charges as politically motivated and a threat to press freedom. His supporters see him as a champion of freedom of speech, while critics point to the widespread publication of secret documents as a threat to US security.
May 2019: Assange is sentenced to almost a year in prison by a court in London for violating the country’s bail rules. The Swedish preliminary investigation is resumed.
November 2019: The Swedish preliminary investigation against Julian Assange is closed again.
2019-2024: A long legal process over possible extradition to the US is ongoing, with a series of appeals from both sides. Julian Assange is being held in a British prison awaiting a decision after a court ruled that he is a high risk of absconding if released.
Several times doctors warn that Assange’s health is so bad that he risks dying in British prison.
June 2024: Julian Assange is freed after admitting to leaking classified information and settling with the US Department of Justice.
On Wednesday, Assange will appear at a court in the Mariana Islands, which is an American territory in the Pacific Ocean, after which he is expected to return to Australia.