LONDON (AP) – Founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange He has been fighting for more than a decade to avoid extradition to the United States to face charges related to the publication of a large number of classified documents by his organization. He has been detained in a high-security London prison since 2019, and before that he spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
As soon as his lawyers start Final round of legal challenge Here’s a look at the key events in the long-running legal saga to stop him being deported from Britain to the US on Tuesday:
– 2006: Assange founded WikiLeaks in Australia. The group begins publishing sensitive or classified documents.
– 2010: In a series of posts, WikiLeaks released nearly half a million documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
– August 2010: Swedish prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Assange based on allegations of rape by one woman and molestation of another. The warrant was withdrawn shortly afterward, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence for a rape charge. Assange has denied the allegations.
– September 2010: Sweden’s director of prosecution reopens a rape investigation. Assange left Sweden and moved to Britain.
– November 2010: Swedish police issue an international arrest warrant for Assange.
– December 2010: Assange surrenders to police in London and is detained pending an extradition hearing. The High Court granted bail to Assange.
– February 2011: Britain’s district court ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden.
– June 2012: Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in central London seeking asylum on 19 June after his attempts to appeal the extradition decision failed. If he goes out, the police set up a 24-hour patrol to arrest him.
– August 2012: Assange granted political asylum by Ecuador.
– July 2014: Assange loses his bid to quash an arrest warrant issued against him in Sweden. A judge in Stockholm upheld warrants against two women charging them with sexual crimes.
– March 2015: Swedish prosecutors ask to interrogate Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy.
– August 2015: Swedish prosecutors closed their investigation into some allegations against Assange due to the statute of limitations; The investigation into the rape allegation is active.
– October 2015: The Metropolitan Police ended their 24-hour patrol outside the Ecuadorian embassy, but said they would arrest Assange if he left, ending a three-year police operation that had estimated It cost millions.
– February 2016: Assange claimed “full vindication” as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that he was unlawfully detained and recommended that he be immediately released and compensated. Let it be given. Britain described the finding as “patently ridiculous”.
– September 2018: Ecuador’s president said his country and Britain were working on a legal solution to allow Assange to leave the embassy.
– October 2018: Assange seeks a court injunction pressuring Ecuador to grant him basic rights he said he had agreed to when the country first granted him asylum.
– November 2018: A US court filing that appears to inadvertently reveal the existence of a sealed criminal case against Assange is discovered by a researcher. No details have been confirmed.
– April 2019: Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno blames WikiLeaks for recent corruption allegations; The government of Ecuador withdrew Assange’s asylum status. London police arrested Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 for violating bail conditions and on behalf of US authorities.
– May 2019: Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail in 2012.
– May 2019: US Government assange convicted 18 charges over the publication of classified documents by WikiLeaks. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack Pentagon computers and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
– November 2019: Swedish prosecutor Rape investigation stopped.
– May 2020: Assange’s extradition hearing delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
– June 2020: The US files a new indictment against Assange, which prosecutors say outlines Assange’s efforts to obtain and release classified information.
– January 2021: A British judge overrules Assange cannot be extradited to the US Because if he is kept in the harsh conditions of an American prison, he is likely to commit suicide.
– July 2021: High Court Allows appeal to the US government The lower court’s ruling blocked Assange’s extradition.
– December 2021: High Court believes US assurances about Assange’s detention are correct enough to guarantee that he will be treated humanely,
— March 2022: Britain’s top court Denial of permission to Assange To appeal against his extradition.
– June 2022: UK Government orders extradition Assange’s for the United States. Assange’s appeal.
– February 20, 2024: Assange’s lawyers launch a final legal bid to block his extradition in the High Court.
