WikiLeaks’ Assange sentenced to 50 weeks for skipping bail
LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for skipping bail in Britain seven years ago and seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Deborah Taylor, the judge at London’s Southwark Crown Court, said Assange’s time in the embassy cost British taxpayers about $21 million, and she imposed a near-maximum sentence because of his “deliberate attempt to delay justice.”
Thursday, a court hearing in London will consider a U.S. extradition request for Assange. The Department of Justice charged him with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system to reveal government secrets.
Assange, a computer hacker, allegedly assisted Chelsea Manning, who was a soldier in the U.S. Army, in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers. WikiLeaks subsequently published thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic cables and images, including video footage purportedly showing U.S. soldiers killing civilians in Iraq.
Manning served nearly seven years of a 35-year sentence for theft and espionage for helping to deliver classified documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted the sentence, and Manning was released in 2017.
Wednesday’s sentencing probably means it will be close to a year before U.S. prosecutors have any chance of getting their hands on Assange.
Assange was arrested last month inside the Embassy of Ecuador after the South American country revoked his political asylum. The 47-year-old Australian sought asylum in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations.
Assange’s legal team expected that if he was extradited to Sweden, he would subsequently be extradited to the USA.
The rape and sexual assault charges against Assange were dropped because his residence in the embassy stymied the investigation and the statute of limitations expired. Swedish prosecutors are considering a request from one of Assange’s alleged victims to reopen the rape investigation. If that happens, Assange could face a competing claim for extradition.