Timeline: The saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition
Leaked US video
April 5, 2010 - WikiLeaks releases leaked video from a US helicopter showing an air strike that killed civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
July 25, 2010 - WikiLeaks releases over 91,000 documents, mostly secret U.S. military reports about the Afghanistan war.
October, 2010 - WikiLeaks releases 400,000 classified military files chronicling the Iraq war. The next month, it releases thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, including candid views of foreign leaders and blunt assessments of security threats.
Rape allegations
November 18, 2010 - A Swedish court orders Assange’s arrest over rape allegations, which he denies. He is arrested in Britain the next month on a European Arrest Warrant but freed on bail.
February 2011 - London’s Westminster Magistrates Court orders Assange’s extradition to Sweden. He appeals.
British Supreme Court rejects Assange’s final appeal
June 14, 2012 - The British Supreme Court rejects Assange’s final appeal and five days later he takes refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London and seeks political asylum, which Ecuador grants in August 2012.
Mike Pompeo
April 13, 2017 - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then CIA chief, describes WikiLeaks as “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia”.
May 19, 2017 - Swedish prosecutors discontinue their investigation, saying it is impossible to proceed while Assange is in the Ecuadorean embassy.
London court
Feb. 21, 2020 - A London court begins the first part of extradition hearings which are adjourned after a week. The hearings are supposed to resume in May but are delayed until September because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jan. 4, 2021 - Judge Vanessa Baraitser concludes it would be “oppressive” to extradite him to the United States because of his frail mental health, saying there was a real risk he would take his own life.
December 2021: Overturning the earlier ruling, the London High Court ruled in favour of the US appeal to extradite Assange.
UK court formally issues order to extradite Julian Assange to US
April 2022: A London Court in a hearing issued the extradition order for WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to the US and now he is set to be tried there on Espionage Act charges for his role in publishing thousands of classified documents that shed light on the atrocities committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If put on trial and convicted in the US, Assange may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
UK clears Assange extradition to US
June 17, 2022 - Britain on Friday approved a US government request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face trial over the publication of secret military files, prompting outrage from his supporters. Home Secretary Priti Patel's interior ministry said Assange had 14 days to appeal the decision, which comes after a UK court issued a formal order clearing his removal in April.
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