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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Judge blasts Assange for jumping bail, sentences him to almost one year
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for fleeing to the Ecuadorian embassy in London while on bail in 2012. At the time, he was facing possible extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.
Assange remained in the embassy until last month, when he was evicted by his Ecuadorian hosts and re-arrested by British authorities.
Wednesday's sentencing is unlikely to be the end of Assange's legal problems. Shortly after he was re-arrested last month, US authorities unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to crack a hashed password belonging to a Pentagon computer in 2010. At the time, Manning was an Army private leaking confidential military documents to WikiLeaks. Assange was unable to learn the password, but the US argues that his attempt is sufficient to charge him with conspiracy.
In a letter to the court, Assange argued that he had fled to the embassy out of fear that he'd be extradited to the United States and wind up being held indefinitely at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Also at BBC, The Guardian, CNET, and The Register.
Previously: Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange
U.S. Ramping Up Probe Against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Says
Ecuador Denies That Julian Assange Will be Evicted From Embassy in London
Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
Julian Assange Associate Arrested In Ecuador
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:29PM (4 children)
Unless the CPS think it'll be done and dusted within 25 weeks, in which case it gives them a justifiable reason for keeping him locked up and largely incommunicdo until they can get him on a plane, presumably to the US since there's no sign of Sweden reopening cases and making a request for him first. Yet.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:55PM
Nah. The judge just averaged 52 (the number of weeks per year he could barely remember and wasn't sure about) and 48 (12*4) since they couldn't be bothered googling it up and were too embarrassed to ask.
Ehe, I should probably post this anonymously...
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:23AM (2 children)
The US and UK almost certainly have their ducks in a row already. The extradition will proceed, and soon enough, we'll be reading about Julian's appearance in one court or another in the US. A year is plenty of time, considering that both nations have already had years to prepare for it.
Who doubts that that the UK will cooperate fully with the US extradition request? The UK may not break any laws, but they'll bend, fold, and mutilate any laws necessary to accomplish the mission.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 02 2019, @06:56AM
Funny to think US was a UK colony and now UK is totally US's bitch.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Thursday May 02 2019, @08:27AM
Of course, the UK's MPs are not meant to have any influence over the judiciary (despite all the "strong hints" above), so I guess it's still *possible* that a judge could block any extradition. There have been a few high profile examples of that, but those were not quite so politically embarassing as Assange's case is so time will tell. They were also generally reliant on the mental state of the accused, and I'm not convinced that Assange wouldn't veto any attempt by his defence to use that kind of argument, but again, time will tell.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!