WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been jailed for 50 weeks for violating his U. K. bail conditions in 2012 at a sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today. A spokeswoman for the court confirmed the almost-year long custodial sentence via email — which falls just short of the 12-month maximum carried by the offence. In a […]
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been jailed for 50 weeks for violating his U. K. bail conditions in 2012 at a sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today.
A spokeswoman for the court confirmed the almost-year long custodial sentence via email — which falls just short of the 12-month maximum carried by the offence.
In a tweet following Assange’s sentencing Wikileaks branded it “shocking” and “vindictive”.
He had already been found guilty of breaching his bail conditions at a hearing last month which followed his arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy — after the country withdrew the diplomatic asylum it had previously granted him.
Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, seeking to evade extradition to Sweden where he was facing rape accusations, claiming he was afraid the country would extradite him to the U.
