Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Assange sentenced in U.K. court
Skipping bail nets 50-week term; U.S.-extradition hearing next
LONDON — A British court on Wednesday sentenced Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail when he took refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London seven years ago.
His complex legal travails are far from over: The United States is seeking Assange’s extradition for prosecution, and an initial hearing on that request is expected today. Officials in Sweden have left open the possibility that he could face criminal charges in that country.
Assange faces a charge of conspiracy to hack into a Pentagon computer network. A federal indictment accuses him of helping an Army private to illegally download classified information in 2010, much of it about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which WikiLeaks then made public. He has denied the allegation.
Assange, 47, was arrested April 11 after the Ecuadorean government withdrew its protection of him and allowed police to take him out of the embassy in London, where he had lived since 2012. The same day, he appeared in court and was convicted on the charge of skipping bail.
Assange, who is being held in Belmarsh Prison in London, argued that he should not be jailed for the offense because he was effectively imprisoned in the embassy. On Wednesday, in Southwark Crown Court in London, Judge Deborah Taylor rejected that claim.
“It’s difficult to envisage a more serious example of this offense,” she told Assange, according to British news organizations. “By hiding in the embassy, you deliberately put yourself out of reach while remaining in the U.K.”
Before Assange was sentenced, the court heard an apology letter in which he said he was “struggling with difficult circumstances.”
“I did what I thought at the time was the best or perhaps the only thing that I could have done,” he said, according to British news reports. “I regret the course that that has taken.”
His legal troubles began in 2010, when prosecutors in Sweden sought to question him about sexual-assault allegations. He has denied those accusations. Eventually, he had to post bail to remain free while fighting extradition to Sweden, which he insisted would then send him to the United States.
After exhausting his appeals in the British courts, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy rather than submit to extradition, violating the terms of his bail. Ecuador granted him asylum and, eventually, citizenship.
He continued his work from the embassy, and in 2016, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and the personal account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, intending to harm Clinton’s candidacy. Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the emails were stolen by Russian intelligence agents, which Assange denies.
The 2010 release of Pentagon records was made possible by Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, the Army private who would later serve about seven years in prison for taking them. The indictment against Assange says he did not merely publish the material provided by Manning, but that he also helped in the hacking. Assange disputes those allegations.
Assange insists that the government is seeking retribution for his exposure of misconduct and deception by U.S. troops and officials.
Swedish prosecutors eventually dropped their case against Assange, calling it pointless to pursue it, but they said they could revive it if he became available. Nevertheless, the bail-jumping charge, and the threat of extradition to the United States, still hung over him.
Last month, Ecuador revoked his asylum and citizenship, citing a list of grievances that had made him an unwanted house guest, including recent WikiLeaks releases and allegations of ill manners, threats, hacking aimed at Ecuador, and abuse of embassy staff members and facilities.
Ecuador stopped sheltering Assange after “his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols,” President Lenin Moreno said in a statement on Twitter.
But Assange did not go easily: He resisted arrest and had to be restrained by British police officers, who struggled to handcuff him, authorities said.
“This is unlawful; I’m not leaving,” he told them, according to the account given at the Westminster Magistrates Court, where Assange appeared later that day. In the end, he had to be dragged out of the embassy.
Assange has indicated that he will fight extradition.