Launch of WikiLeaks.
Julian Assange is an Australian-born journalist, known as WikiLeaks’s founder, and editor-in-chief. WikiLeaks is a multinational media organisation that publishes “classified” or otherwise restricted documents from anonymous sources.
In 2010, after revelations about the United States military and diplomatic activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, Assange found himself at the heart of an international politico-judicial affair that deprived him of his freedom. Initially placed on probation, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 to 2019 and was ultimately incarcerated in the high-security prison of Belmarsh.
This detention, which has lasted for 14 years, has been considered arbitrary since 2015 by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its Opinion of 4 December 2015.
Since 2018, the U.S. has requested his extradition on an indictment for various charges, mostly related to the highly contested Espionage Act.
However, all indicate that the trial he will undergo will not comply with international human rights standards. He faces a 175-year sentence — in reality, perpetual and incompressible — which would constitute an inhuman and degrading treatment according to the accepted human rights standards. He will likely be subject to ill-treatment and torture during his U.S. detention, both pre-trial and after his conviction.
In June 2022, the British government approved the extradition request. Julian Assange remains in prison in Belmarsh pending the outcome of the appeal proceedings.
Launch of WikiLeaks.
Publication by WikiLeaks of the Collateral Murder video provided by Chelsea Manning.
Publication by WikiLeaks of Afghan War Logs with The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.
Swedish court issues arrest warrant for Julian Assange on rape charges.
Swedish prosecutor Eva Finné cancels the arrest warrant.
Decision by the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office to resume the investigation concerning the suspected rape.