US charges WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiracy
His London arrest paves the way for his possible extradition to the US, which wants him for trying to access a classified US government computer
Washington — US prosecutors said on Thursday that they have charged Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, with conspiracy in trying to access a classified US government computer with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010. Assange, arrested by British police in London and carried out of Ecuador’s embassy there, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the American charges, the US justice department said in a statement. His London arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the US. Assange’s indictment arose from a long-running criminal investigation dating back to the administration of former president Barack Obama. It was triggered in part by the publication of hundreds of thousands of US military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and American diplomatic communications by WikiLeaks in 2010.
The justice department said Assange was arrested pursuant to the US/UK Extradition Treaty, and accuses him of involvement in o...
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