Why is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange facing 175 years in prison? What are US' charges?

On April 20, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange moved a step closer to being extradited to United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison. A British judge on Wednesday formally approved extradition of 50-year-old to US to face spying charges under Espion Act. It is to be ted here that despite formal approval of UK judge, Assange still has legal avenues to appeal while case is set to w go to Britain's interior minister for a decision.

latest order came after UK Supreme Court last month refused Assange permission to appeal against a lower court’s ruling that he could be extradited. WikiLeaks founder, for several years, has tried to avoid a trial in United States on charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a significant trove of classified documents in 2010.

While Assange’s lawyers still have four weeks to make submissions appeal to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, it still remains unclear if y would seek to appeal in High Court.

What are charges against Assange in US and why does he face 175 years in prison? 

past decade has been significantly tumultuous for Assange, who set up WikiLeaks in 2006 as a platform for anymous whistleblowers to share top-secret information and data. Even at time of its founding, WikiLeaks and its founder, w 50-year-old Assange drew divided responses with equal parts of criticism and encourment. For many, while platform represented ground-breaking journalism, ors flagged national security concerns budded from website.

What did WikiLeaks release?

WikiLeaks was active for 15 years and in that time period, numerous troves of documents, data and information dumps, were released. Some of most impactful publications include 400,000 secret military reports relating to war in Iraq and 90,000 documents on Afghanistan’s conflict.

However, in 2010, platform ended up releasing what is w infamously called ‘Collateral Murder’ video, showing soldiers in United States Apache helicopter killing a dozen people on ground in Iraq’s Baghdad including two journalists of an international news ncy.

What happened to Assange after 2010?

In 2010, an arrest warrant was issued by Swedish authorities over charges of rape and sexual assault. Later, WikiLeaks founder was held in UK, country where he was living at time, and waited for a result of an extradition request to face charges in Sweden. But two years after being held in UK, Assange skipped bail and sought asylum in Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

He ended up spending around seven years in Ecuadorian Embassy in London. While developments were taking place pertaining to case filed by Swedish authorities against Assange, officials in United States also launched an investigation into publishing of documents relating to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Later, US also moved to press charges against Assange and extradite him from UK. se charges included at least 17 for espion along with one for computer misuse with ar individual, US whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

As US-brought legal battles were piling up for Assange, ties between WikiLeaks founder and Ecuador also started to deteriorate, with President Lenin More accusing embassy of “repeated violations". Ultimately, Assange was dragged from Ecuadorian Embassy building in London in 2019. 

After being abandoned by Ecuadorian authorities, Assange was found guilty in UK of skipping bail. Additionally, he also had to face a pending US request for extradition when he was taken to Belmarsh prison. Sweden ended up dropping rape case in vember 2019. 

Why is Assange avoiding extradition to US?

Julian Assange is wanted in United States on 18 criminal charges and if convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison. While in 2021, a magistrates court termed it “oppressive” for him to be extradited to US, High Court overturned that decision in December and said that WikiLeaks founder could be extradited to US on basis of assurances over his treatment.

A lawyer for Assange has previously said that y would fight extradition to US and avered that his arrest would set a dangerous precedent for rights of journalists. 

Im: AP/ PTI