Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was charged with crimes, but US lawyers have said that the charges were not political and were based on the fact that he named sources and promoted theft and hacking.
Over the next few days, the founder of WikiLeaks could be sent back to the United States to face charges connected to leaking secret military and diplomatic documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Lawyers have spoken out after being accused of bringing these charges to light as political payback for exposing crimes committed by the government, such as abduction, torture, and killings that did not follow the law.
But the answer was that it wasn’t political retaliation and that the charges were brought because he did “far more than the acts of a journalist who was merely gathering information.” Assange’s lawyers are calling his prosecution “unprecedented.”
According to the charges, Assange did more than just put information online. He and Chelsea Manning planned to steal and share secret information. He is also said to have tried to get other hackers and leakers to work with him to get secret information. He is also said to have “knowingly and indiscriminately published to the world the names of individuals who acted as sources of information to the United States.”
Assange wants a full appeal hearing and thinks that the two judges who are hearing his case will agree with him. There are a few things that could happen with his case. If he is denied a full hearing, he will have to ask the UK not to send him while they think about his case. He could be picked up by U.S. Marshals in the next few days if this is refused.
