Assange has been released from prison on bail

Credit: AFP

Julian Assange has been released from prison on bail in what will likely be the last legal twist of a complex and high-stakes battle with the courts that has run for more than a decade.

The Australian journalist and campaigner,52,has spent the last five years in HMP Belmarsh,attempting to avoid extradition to the United States.

There,it was thought he faced espionage charges that carry a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.

Here is how the story unfolded.

2006 - Julian Assange starts Wikileaks 

Julian Assange,a little-known journalist and transparency campaigner,founded the website Wikileaks in Australia. Modelled on the open-source encyclopaedia Wikipedia,it promised to provide uncensored classified documents to the public.

2010 - Wikileaks gains global attention  

Wikileaks’ first release to gain worldwide attention contained almost half a million documents relating to the actions of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. The papers,many of which were uploaded to the organisation’s server the previous year by US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning,contained a series of damaging revelations for the White House.

They included a video of a US helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a Reuters journalist,more than 250,000 embassy cables and intelligence about Guantanamo Bay detainees. The material was partly issued through news organisations,including the New York Times and The Guardian. The Obama administration considered legal action against him.

Swedish prosecutors prepared a case against Mr Assange,based on a rape accusation from one woman and an accusation of molestation from another. An international arrest warrant was issued in November. He denied the charges.

Julian Assange in London in February 2011

Credit: AP

2011 

A British district court ruled that Mr Assange,who was in the UK,should be extradited to Sweden to stand trial on the charges.

An appeal against this ruling was rejected by the High Court in November.

2012 

Mr Assange skipped bail and applied for political asylum in Ecuador.

He took up residence in the country’s embassy in Knightsbridge,and Scotland Yard set up a 24-hour watch on the building. The Metropolitan Police said he would be arrested if he stepped outside onto British soil.

His application for asylum was accepted in August.

2013

The Crown Prosecution Service,led by Sir Keir Starmer,encouraged Swedish prosecutors not to drop the case against Mr Assange.

Mr Assange said he would not leave the embassy,even if the charges were dropped,because he feared facing espionage charges in the US. There was not yet evidence that those charges existed.

2014 

In July,Mr Assange lost an appeal to have the Swedish arrest warrant dropped.

2015

Some of the Swedish charges were dropped under a statute of limitations,but the rape investigation remained active.

In October,after running a round-the-clock guard at the Ecuadorian embassy for three years,Scotland Yard said it would stand down. The operation was estimated to have cost £12 million.

Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2016

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2016

Mr Assange lost an appeal over the Swedish arrest warrant. It remained in place.

Wikileaks made its first significant disclosure in six years,revealing material from the Democratic National Committee in the United States. The information was damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign,and Donald Trump remarked: “I love Wikileaks.”

Mr Assange was questioned at the embassy by Swedish prosecutors and police.

2017

In the final days of his presidency,Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning,who had been imprisoned for 35 years in 2013 for the US leaks.

Jeff Sessions,the incoming attorney general in Donald Trump’s administration,said Mr Assange’s arrest was a “priority” for the new government.

Wikileaks released more material harvested from the CIA.

Assange greets supporters from the balcony in 2017

Credit: AP

2018

Ecuador said it was working with the UK to find a legal solution that would allow Mr Assange to leave the embassy in Knightsbridge.

An increasingly sour relationship between Mr Assange and his hosts produced a new lawsuit when he announced he would sue for Ecuador to provide him with basic rights.

Mr Assange’s fears were confirmed when the US accidentally revealed it had charged him on a narrow hacking-related charge that would allow a warrant and extradition request to be issued. He stood down as Wikileaks’ editor but remained the website’s publisher.

2019 

Ecuador rescinded Mr Assange’s asylum,blaming Wikileaks for corruption allegations against its government. There was hostility between him and Ecuadorian officials in Knightsbridge after he was accused of skateboarding in the corridors and allowing his cat to soil the walls.

The Trump administration unsealed its indictment against Mr Assange and added new charges,accusing him of violating the Espionage Act. The charges carried a sentence of decades in prison.

After being evicted from the embassy,Mr Assange was arrested by the Metropolitan Police for skipping bail in 2012 and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison. The US warrant was carried out and Washington initiated extradition proceedings. Mr Assange was transferred to HMP Belmarsh,a high security prison in southeast London.

The remaining Swedish charges against him were dropped.

2020 

Mr Assange’s extradition case was heard by a court in Woolwich,where he argued he could not be sent to the US for “political offences” under a 2003 treaty.

As the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the UK,Mr Assange’s bail application was denied. His then-partner (now wife) Stella Morris,said his health was at risk and urged Mr Trump to pardon him before leaving office in January 2021.

2021

A year of legal battles saw Mr Assange’s extradition refused in January over concerns that harsh conditions in a US prison may drive him to suicide.

That decision was overturned on appeal by the US in December,after Washington said it would not keep Mr Assange in a high-security prison and he could serve his sentence in Australia.

Mr Assange immediately began another appeal at the Supreme Court.

2022 

Mr Assange won the first stage of appeal at the Supreme Court,but was denied permission to appeal against the December 2021 ruling to extradite him. He married Ms Morris in Belmarsh.

An extradition order was released,then signed by then-Home Secretary Priti Patel. Mr Assange appealed that decision.

Mr Assange received a flood of support,including from the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese,Russell Brand,Jeremy Corbyn and the government of Mexico.

2023 

Mr Assange lost a further High Court ruling on his extradition.

After Mr Albanese repeated his demand for Mr Assange to be released,Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was accused of “very serious criminal conduct”.

Stella Assange in March 2024,when the High Court was set to rule on whether Julian Assange could appeal against extradition from Britain to the US

Credit: Reuters

2024 - Wikileaks said Mr Assange was ‘free’

Mr Assange’s lawyer said his life was at risk if his final appeal against extradition failed. The only further route – an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,looked doubtful.

The final appeal stalled in March when the High Court said the US was allowed to provide “assurances” that Mr Assange would be treated fairly. Those assurances were provided.

Mr Biden said he was “considering” an Australian request for a plea deal that would allow Mr Assange to walk free.

The Wikileaks founder was given the go-ahead for another appeal,allowing him to argue he may not be entitled to rely on First Amendment free speech protections in the US.

On June 24,after a plea deal was agreed with US prosecutors,Mr Assange was granted bail from HMP Belmarsh and allowed to fly to a hearing on the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. Wikileaks said he was “free”.

The hearing has been scheduled for 9am on Wednesday,local time (11pm Tuesday GMT). Mr Assange is expected to travel to Australia if a federal judge agrees to the plea deal.