April 12, 2019
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange has been found guilty of breaching the bail condition by a London judge, Michael Snow at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
Assange, Australian-born, has pleaded not guilty of failing to appear in the court in 2012. He was arrested on Thursday to face charge in the US for conspiring with Chelsea Manning for getting unauthorized access to computer network of Pentagon in 2010. His arrest followed the withdrawal of asylum and suspension of his Ecuadorian citizenship by Ecuadorian government. He had been living in the Embassy for seven years.
He had faced allegations for sexual assault to two women in Sweden when he was granted asylum in 2012 in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He sought for asylum fearing his extradition to the US. The sexual assault charges were dropped by Sweden in 2017 but the charge for bail breach remained.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that Assange would not get any “special treatment” and would receive consular support as any other Australian. Morrison talking with media stated that when Australians travel overseas and find themselves in difficulties with the law, they would face the judicial system of those countries.
According to a media in Sweden, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, a lawyer who is representing one of the accusers of Assange for sexual assault has requested to resume the investigation to the Swedish prosecutor’s office.
Assange’s WikiLeaks was responsible for publishing a classified US military video which showed an attack in Baghdad that killed almost a dozen people including two journalists from Reuters.
