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Julian Assange
Australian editor and founder of WikiLeaks (born 1971) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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 | |
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Born | Julian Paul Hawkins (1971-07-03) 3 July 1971 (age 53) Townsville, Queensland, Australia |
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Years active | 1987–2019 |
Known for | Founding WikiLeaks |
Title | Director[1] and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks (2006–2018); publisher (since 2018)[2] |
Political party | WikiLeaks Party (2013–2015) |
Criminal charges | 1x Conspiracy to Obtain and Disclose National Defence Information (2024) |
Criminal penalty | Time served (62 months) |
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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On 11 April, 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities.[15] The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested.[16] He was found guilty of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 to a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents in return for a sentence of time served.[25][26] Following the hearing, Assange departed for Australia and arrived in Canberra on 26 June, 2024.[27]