Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɑːnʒ/ə-SAHNZH;[3]néHawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006 in order to commit "acts of journalism".[4] He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning:[5]footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Assange was raised in several towns in Australia until his family settled in Melbourne in his mid-teens. He became involved in the hacker community and was convicted for hacking in 1996.[6][7][8] Following the establishment of WikiLeaks, Assange was its editor when it published the Bank Julius Baer documents, footage of the 2008 Tibetan unrest, and a report on political killings in Kenya with The Sunday Times.
On 11 April 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities.[16] The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested.[17] He was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.[18] The U.S. government unsealed an indictment charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Manning.[19] In May 2019 and June 2020, the U.S. government unsealed new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers.[20][21][22] Assange has been incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019, as the United States government's extradition effort is contested in the British courts.[23][24][25]