4 JANUARY 2021
Supporters of Wikileaks and Julian Assange have protested outside the court several times during the trial against his treatment. Photo: Matt Dunham / AP
The verdict was handed down on Monday: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not be extradited to the United States, where he is accused of espionage and hacking. But the decision of the British court is likely to be appealed.
At 12 o'clock on Monday morning, the British court ruled that Julian Assange would not be extradited to the United States. In the event of extradition, he would, according to his own statement, risk over 100 years in prison.
"Journalistic work"
The defense has claimed that Assange has done a journalistic job and that he is being persecuted by the United States for political reasons, after Wikileaks revealed wrongdoing and abuse committed by the US military.
But despite the fact that a decision has been made in court, it is not certain that the issue is completely settled. The final decision on extradition rests with the British government, writes the BBC.
Will appeal
In addition, both parties can appeal the decision, in a process that could reach the UK's Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, and take several years.
The trial began in February last year but has been delayed due to the corona pandemic. Assange himself has been in custody throughout the process.
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FACTS: JULIAN ASSANGE AND WIKILEAKS
Born 1971 in Townsville, Australia.
As a teenager, he became known as a hacker under the name Mendax, who together with others broke into the Pentagon's and NASA's computer systems.
In 2006, co-founded Wikileaks, a website where large leaks could be submitted and published.
In 2010, Wikileaks published a video from a US helicopter attack in Iraq in which a dozen civilians were killed, including two journalists from the news agency Reuters, which received enormous attention.
In 2010, about 75,000 documents were also released about the US war effort in Afghanistan and in the autumn documents about the war in Iraq which, among other things, showed how children were killed.
In 2016, Wikileaks released leaked emails from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. The intrusion is said to have been carried out by hackers with ties to Russia's intelligence service.