Timeline of Julian Assange's 14-year-long saga to dodge extradition
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to an espionage charge in a deal hashed out with federal prosecutors, ending his 14-year-long fight to avoid extradition to the United States to face prosecution.
Under the plea deal, the 52-year-old Australian former computer programmer was sentenced Wednesday by a judge in the Northern Mariana Islands to time served and set free.
Here is a timeline of events marking Assange's long legal saga:
2006 -- Assange forms WikiLeaks in Australia and begins publishing classified and other sensitive documents.
April to July 2010 -- WikiLeaks begins releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents related to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, provided to the website by Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning.
August 2010 -- Prosecutors in Sweden announce that an arrest warrant has been issued for Assange after two women accused him of rape and molestation. Assange denies the charges.
December 2010 -- Assange surrenders to police in London in response to the Swedish arrest warrant. He is released on bail pending an extradition hearing.
February 2011 -- A British magistrates' court orders Assange to be extradited to Sweden. Assange appeals the ruling.
June 2012 -- Assange takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and asks for political asylum after his appeal efforts are unsuccessful.
August 2012 -- The Ecuadorian government grants Assange political asylum, allowing him to legally reside at their embassy in London.
August 2013 -- Court martial proceedings against Manning commence, leading to a conviction on espionage charges. Manning is sentenced to 35 years in prison.
July 2014 -- A Swedish judge rejects Assange's request to dismiss the arrest warrants.
January 2017 -- Then-President Barack Obama commutes the prison sentence of Manning, who became the first person to receive health care related to gender transition while in military prison.
May 2017 -- Swedish authorities drop the rape and molestation charges against Assange. His attorney, Per Samuelson, calls the decision a "total victory."
April 2019 -- British authorities arrest Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and he is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail. At the same time, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiring with Manning to hack into U.S. Department of Defense computers in March 2010 in "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States."
June 2019 -- The U.S. Department of Justice formally asks the British court to extradite Assange to the United States to face charges in the hacking case.
January 2021 -- British Judge Vanessa Baraitser blocks the attempt to extradite Assange to the United States, ruling his mental health could become worse under the prison conditions he would likely face in U.S. jails. Baraitser ordered Assange to be released from prison.
July 2021 -- The U.S. government is granted permission by the British High Court to appeal the ruling blocking Assange's extradition.
June 2022 -- The British government orders Assange to be extradited to the United States, prompting an appeal from Assange.
May 2023 --Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the U.S. government should cease efforts to prosecute Assange, saying, "Enough is enough" and that he is concerned about Assange's mental health.
February 2024 -- British High Court judges rule Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States based on arguments about whether he will receive free-speech protections or be at a disadvantage because he is not a U.S. citizen.
June 24, 2024 -- Assange pleads guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain classified information and is sentenced to time served. "He has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world gets truthful and important newsworthy information," Assange's lawyer, Barry J. Pollack, said. "We firmly believe that Mr. Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in exercise that journalists engage in every day, and we are thankful that they do."
