WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to almost a year in prison.
Assange on Wednesday received a 50-week prison sentence in the U.K. for skipping bail, NBC News reports. This sentence is separate from the conspiracy charge Assange faces in the United States. Instead, it relates to Assange fleeing to Ecuador's London embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden while he was facing sexual assault and rape charges.
This violated the conditions of his bail, which Assange's lawyers said he did because he was a "desperate man" who feared being extradited to the United States, Politico reports. Judge Deborah Taylor sentenced Assange to what comes close to the maximum of a year in prison.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Ecuadorian government withdrew Assange's asylum in April, and he was arrested for failing to surrender to court. Meanwhile, Assange faces a charge in the United States of conspiring to hack a Pentagon computer network, and the U.S. is seeking his extradition. He has denied the charge and said he will fight the extradition. A hearing over this charge is scheduled for Thursday, CNN reports.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
