[ad_1]
LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been fighting for more than a decade to avoid extradition to the United States to face charges related to his organization’s publication of a huge trove of classified documents. He has been detained in a high-security London prison since 2019 and previously spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
As your lawyers begin a final round of legal challenge On Tuesday, to avoid being sent from Britain to the US, here’s a look at the key events in the long-running legal saga:
— 2006: Assange founded WikiLeaks in Australia. The group begins publishing confidential or classified documents.
— 2010: In a series of publications, WikiLeaks published 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 one woman’s rape allegation and another’s allegation of sexual abuse. The order is withdrawn soon after, and prosecutors cite insufficient evidence for the rape charge. Assange denies the accusations.
— September 2010: Sweden’s chief prosecutor reopens rape investigation. Assange leaves Sweden for 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 grants bail to Assange.
— February 2011: A British district court rules that Assange must be extradited to Sweden.
— June 2012: Assange enters the Ecuadorian embassy in central London seeking asylum on June 19, after his attempts to appeal the extradition ruling fail. The police set up 24-hour guard to arrest him if he goes out.
— August 2012: Ecuador grants political asylum to Assange.
— July 2014: Assange loses his bid to cancel an arrest warrant issued in Sweden against him. A judge in Stockholm confirms the arrest warrant for sexual crimes against two women.
— March 2015: Swedish prosecutors ask to question Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy.
— August 2015: Swedish prosecutors abandon investigations into some allegations against Assange due to the statute of limitations; An investigation into a rape allegation remains active.
— October 2015: The Metropolitan Police ends its 24-hour guard outside the Ecuadorian embassy but says it will arrest Assange if he leaves, ending a three-year police operation estimated to have cost millions.
— February 2016: Assange calls for “full vindication” when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determines that he has been unlawfully detained and recommends that he be immediately released and compensated. Britain calls the discovery “frankly ridiculous.”
— September 2018: Ecuador’s president says his country and Britain are working on a legal solution to allow Assange to leave the embassy.
— October 2018: Assange seeks a court order to pressure Ecuador to provide him with the basic rights he said the country accepted when it first granted him asylum.
– November 2018: An investigator discovers a US court file that appears to inadvertently reveal the existence of a sealed criminal case against Assange. There are no confirmed details.
— April 2019: Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno blames WikiLeaks for recent corruption allegations; The government of Ecuador withdraws Assange’s asylum status. London police arrest Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy for breaching bail conditions in 2012, as well as on behalf of US authorities.
— May 2019: Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012.
— May 2019: US government accuses Assange accused of 18 counts for the publication of classified documents by WikiLeaks. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
— November 2019: Swedish prosecutor abandons rape investigation.
— May 2020: An extradition hearing for Assange is delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
— June 2020: The United States files a new indictment against Assange that prosecutors say underscores Assange’s efforts to obtain and disclose classified information.
– January 2021: British judge rules on Assange cannot be extradited to the US. because he is likely to commit suicide if held in harsh American prison conditions.
– July 2021: The Superior Court grants US government permission to appeal the lower court ruling blocking Assange’s extradition.
— December 2021: High Court rules that US assurances on Assange’s detention are enough to ensure that he would be treated humanely.
– March 2022: Britain’s highest court refuses to grant permission to Assange appeal against his extradition.
– June 2022: British government orders extradition from Assange to the United States. Assange appeals.
— February 20, 2024: Assange’s lawyers launch a final legal attempt to stop his extradition to the High Court.
[ad_2]
Source link