WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 47, arrives at court with beard and long hair trimmed and waving fist of defiance ahead of sentencing for breaching bail
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange today arrived at court with his beard and long hair trimmed ahead of being sentenced for breaching bail.
The 47-year-old waved a fist of defiance as he arrived at Southwark Crown Court this morning.
Assange will today face court for jumping British bail seven years ago – holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid police.
And his appearance shocked the world as he was taken from the embassy last month when Ecuador revoked his political asylum, with the Australian seen with a long white beard and long hair.
But the facial hair was this morning gone as he headed into court, facing a maximum of a year behind bars.
A judge at an earlier hearing said the 47-year-old hacker’s offence “merits the maximum sentence.”
The Australian secret-spiller had sought asylum in the South American country’s London embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations.
He faces a separate legal fight against a US extradition request after being charged with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system.
CASE AGAINST HIM IN THE US
THE criminal case against Julian Assange in the US was revealed last month.
The WikiLeaks hacker is wanted on conspiracy charges for committing “computer intrusion”.
And he is charged with conspiring with ex-intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning — jailed for 35 years before her sentence was commuted in 2017 — to crack a Department of Defence password.
Assange faces a maximum five years if convicted.
Details of the US investigation emerged in a six-page charge sheet filed at Virginia’s Eastern District court on March 6, 2018.
US prosecutors say Assange knew Manning had already handed over four huge secret databases to WikiLeaks in 2010.
They included 90,000 Afghanistan war reports, 400,000 Iraq reports, 800 briefings on Guantanamo Bay detainees and 250,000 diplomatic cables.
Despite that, he agreed to help crack the password, telling her: “Curious eyes never run dry in my experience.” Later, he asked her for more information to help the operation, adding: “No luck so far.”
The pair used the Jabber online chat service to plot the hack and took measures to cover Manning’s tracks as it unfolded, prosecutors allege.
CASE AGAINST HIM IN SWEDEN
SWEDISH prosecutors are considering relaunching a rape investigation into Julian Assange.
Officials said the allegations made against him were due to expire under the country’s statute of limitations in August next year.
But his arrest means the investigation could be reopened after a request from an alleged victim.
Deputy chief prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson said: “We will now examine the matter to determine how we proceed. The preliminary investigation has therefore not been resumed yet and we do not know today whether it will happen. We cannot promise any timetable for when decisions will be made.”
Assange was accused of attacking a woman after they met at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm in 2010. She alleged that Assange had unprotected sex with her while she was asleep even though she had refused him repeatedly.
The case was dropped in May 2017 after the director of public prosecutions ruled it impossible to proceed while he was under Ecuador’s protection.
But yesterday, the woman’s lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz piled pressure on prosecutors, saying: “No rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served.”
The famous hacker is now facing charges in America for “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion” after he leaked secret government files in 2010.
Since he was dramatically hauled from the embassy, strange stories have been emerging about his behaviour while he stayed there under asylum status.
Staff complained about him riding his skateboard on the polished floors, as well as playing football and generally being untidy.
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He was also said to stage “dirty protests” in which he would stuff his underpants down the toilet and leave unwashed dishes in the kitchen.
And employees said they were annoyed by him playing loud music at night.
It was even claimed his cat was taken away from the embassy because he didn’t look after it.
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