What is Julian Assange accused of?
Julian Assange, an Australian national, is currently being held at HMP Belmarsh in London pending an appeal by the US to extradite him there.
He was imprisoned in 2019 after seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he sought asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden on sex abuse charges.
When Ecuador revoked his asylum he was arrested for skipping bail.
The Swedish charges – one of rape and one of molestation – were eventually dropped, but he remains in prison as the US still want to try him for espionage over his WikiLeaks activity in 2010.
Here, Sky News looks back at the legal charges Assange has faced:
November 2010: Sweden orders an arrest warrant for Assange accusing him of two sexual assault allegations. Assange is arrested in the UK on a European Arrest Warrant, but is freed on bail
June 2012: Assange’s final appeal against Swedish extradition is rejected and he seeks asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London
May 2017: Sweden discontinues its investigation, claiming proceedings are impossible while he is inside the embassy
April 2019: Ecuador revokes Assange’s asylum and he is carried out of the embassy, arrested and taken to HMP Belmarsh. He is sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping the bail from his 2010 case
June 2019: The US Justice Department formally asks the UK to extradite Assange over his 2010 WikiLeaks publications
November 2019: Sweden drops their case completely, citing a lack of evidence and too much time passing since the alleged offences
January 2021: Judge rules that Assange should not be extradited to the US citing a high suicide risk
August 2021: The US appeals at the High Court in a bid to extradite Assange
