WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced by the Southwark Crown Court to a 50-week prison sentence for breaching his bail order in the UK. Judge Deborah Taylor was barely below the maximum possible sentence of one year in prison.

In her oral statement, she stated that Assange could have volunteered to join the Borden at any time, but had not. The argument of the defense, Assange had acted for “justified fear” before that Sweden could deliver him to the US, was not shared by the judge.

At the time of his escape to the embassy in Ecuador seven years ago, Assange had exhausted all appeals that prevented Great Britain from extraditing him to Sweden for a rape allegation. The prosecution in Sweden had the investigation then set in 2017. The lawyer of the woman who accused Assange, but has requested the readmission. Assange was arrested by the British police at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11 after Ecuador lifted political asylum.

Extradition request from the USA

As of next Thursday, Assange’s case will be heard in the Westminster District Court. This is about the US extradition request. Assange is alleged to have conspired with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, then Bradley Manning, and to crack a password on a government computer network.

In 2010, Mannings had forwarded to Wikileaks hundreds of thousands of secret military documents. It was about the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American judiciary may file further charges in this trial but must take into account that British laws prohibit extradition if a defendant in the United States faces the death penalty.