Today Julian Assange has found out he cannot be extradited to the United States following a lengthy legal battle. Mr Assange has appeared at the Old Bailey today, where District Judge Vanessa Baraitser gave her judgment on whether he should be extradited to face the charges in the US. Mr Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, with whom he has two young sons, was at the Old Bailey for the hearing.
Who is Julian Assange?
Julian Assange, 49, is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006.
He lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years and faces an 18-count indictment, alleging a plot to hack computers and a conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.
The case follows WikiLeaks’s publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents in 2010 and 2011 relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables.
Prosecutors say Mr Assange helped US defence analyst Chelsea Manning breach the Espionage Act in unlawfully obtaining material, was complicit in hacking by others, and published classified information that put the lives of US informants in danger.
Mr Assange denies plotting with Ms Manning to crack an encrypted password on US Department of Defence computers and says there is no evidence anyone’s safety was put at risk.
Read More: Julian Assange court case: Wikileaks founder WON’T be extradited to US
