re: Julian Assange > Hero or Villain?
Julian Assange Jailed in UK for 50 Weeks for Breaching Bail in 2012
WikiLeaks founder breached bail by entering Ecuadorian embassy seven years ago
The Guardian UK, 1 MAY 2019.
Julian Assange has been sentenced to just under a year in jail for breaching bail conditions after spending almost seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
A judge largely rejected the mitigating factors put forward by lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder, who had also written a letter in which he expressed regret for his actions but claimed he had been left with no choice.
In the letter, read out in court by his lawyer, Mark Summers, Assange said: “I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case. This is not what I wanted or intended.
“I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy. I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done – which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears.
“I regret the course that this took; the difficulties were instead compounded and impacted upon very many others. While the difficulties I now face may have become even greater, nevertheless it is right for me to say this now.”
Assange, who took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape accusations, was arrested on 11 April after Ecuador terminated his asylum.
Timeline
June 2010 – October 2010
WikiLeaks releases about 470,000 classified military documents concerning American diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.
November 2010
A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims.
December 2010
He turns himself in to police in London and is placed in custody. He is later released on bail and calls the Swedish allegations a smear campaign.
February 2011
A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Assange fears Sweden will hand him over to US authorities who could prosecute him.
June 2012
He takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He requests, and is later granted, political asylum.
February 2016
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Assange has been 'arbitrarily detained' and should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden. Britain and Sweden rebuff the non-binding ruling.
November 2016
Assange is questioned in a two-day interview over the allegations at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish authorities.
January 2017
WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are 'guaranteed'. It comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, Chelsea Manning, is given clemency.
March 2017
Nigel Farage is spotted visiting the Ecuadorian embassy.
May 2017
Swedish prosecutors say they have closed their seven-year sex assault investigation into Assange. British police say they would still arrest him if he leaves the embassy as he breached the terms of his bail in 2012.
January 2018
Britain refuses Ecuador's request to accord Assange diplomatic status, which would allow him to leave the embassy without being arrested.
February 2018
He loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.
March 2018
Ecuador cuts off Assange's internet access alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs.
November 2018
US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.
2 April 2019
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has 'repeatedly violated' the conditions of his asylum at the embassy.
11 April 2019
Police arrest Assange at the embassy after his asylum was withdrawn. Scotland Yard confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. Assange has been charged by the US with 'a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.'
1 May 2019
He is jailed for 50 weeks in the UK for breaching his bail conditions back in 2012. An apology letter from Assange is read out in court, but the judge rules that he had engaged in a “deliberate attempt to evade justice”.
The 47-year-old was appearing at Southwark crown court, where Judge Deborah Taylor said that he had engaged in a “deliberate attempt to evade justice”.
To gasps from a few dozen Assange supporters in the public gallery, the judge said that a number of factors put his refusal to surrender in the highest tier – category A – of the offence.
By entering the embassy he deliberately put himself out of range of investigators, she told Assange. “You exploited your privileged position to flout the law and advertised internationally your disdain for the law of this country,” she added.
She also told him that even though he did cooperate initially with the investigation “it was not for you to decide the nature of your cooperation with the Swedish investigation” and his continued residency in the embassy had been an attempt to delay and thwart the process.
The judge also referred to the expenditure of £16m of taxpayers’ money on policing resources outside the embassy for the period in which he was there.
“It is essential that no one is above or beyond the reach of the law,” she concluded, before sentencing Assange to 50 weeks.
Counsel for Assange had laid out a number of mitigating factors, claiming that Assange lived in fear of being rendered from Sweden to the US, where politicians had talked of having him assassinated.
The case of Chelsea Manning and the conditions in which the US military whistleblower was kept was also instanced, as was the case of individuals who were rendered from Sweden to the US in chains and after being drugged for transatlantic flights.
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