TIMELINE OF EVENTS
● August 20 2010: allegations of rape and molestation against Assange in Sweden.
● August 21 2010: allegations withdrawn. One of Stockholm’s chief prosecutors, Eva Finne, says: “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.”
● September 1 2010: Swedish director of prosecution Marianne Ny says she is reopening the rape investigation.
● November 18 2010: the Stockholm court approves a request to question Assange, by this time in London. He is willing to be questioned at the Swedish embassy in London, fearing rendition to the US.
● November 20 2010: Swedish police issue an international arrest warrant for Assange.
● December 8 2010: Assange hands himself over to British police.
● December 16 2010: Assange is granted bail by the British high court.
● February 24 2011: Court rules that Assange should be extradited to Sweden, which is appealed.
● May 30 2012: the supreme court rules that he should be extradited to Sweden.
● June 19 2012: Assange enters the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
● August 20 2012: UK will not grant Assange permission to travel to Ecuador and is legally obliged to extradite him to Sweden. ● August 13 2015: Swedish prosecutors drop charges of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion because of time lapsed, but he still faces charges of rape that expire in 2020.
● February 5 2016: the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention rules that Assange should be freed.
● November 14 2016: Sweden’s chief prosecutor questions Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
● May 19 2017: Sweden announces that the rape investigation of Assange is dropped, contradicting its earlier statement that it can be dropped only in 2020.
● December 2017: Assange is given Ecuadorean citizenship.
● July 27 2018: President Moreno of Ecuador says he has never supported Assange’s “activities”. The UK and Ecuador confirm they are holding talks on Assange.
● October 2018: Assange is given a set of house rules by the Ecuadorean embassy, amid statements that he is a messy guest and does not take care of his cat.
● December 6 2018: Assange rejects an agreement between the UK and Ecuador on him leaving the Ecuadorean embassy.
● April 11 2019: the British police enter the Ecuadorean embassy and arrest Assange for “failing to surrender to the court" over a warrant issued in 2012.
● The US has requested the extradition of Assange to face charges of conspiring to steal state documents.