Julian Assange

Julian Paul Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is a spokesman and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, which is a website that posts news leaks. He started the website in 2006.[1] He was born in Townsville, Queensland. He also made a program called Rubberhose (file system) to hide secret information in a specific way that protects against torture.

Julian Assange
Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, London (August 2014)
Born	Julian Paul Hawkins (1971-07-03) 3 July 1971 Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Alma mater	Central Queensland University University of Melbourne University of Canberra
Occupation	Editor programmer politician
Years active	1987–present
Known for	Founding WikiLeaks
Title	Director and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks
Political party	Independent (2015–present) WikiLeaks (2012–2015)
Criminal status	Convicted of failure to surrender to the court Under arrest by the Metropolitan Police Service in London under extradition warrant.
Spouse(s)	Teresa Doe (m. 1989; div. 1999)
Partner(s)	Sarah Harrison (sep. 2009; sep. 2012)
Children	4
Awards	Full list

Assange was the Readers' Choice for Time Person of the Year in 2010[2] after getting the most Internet votes. However, Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook, won the actual award.

In 2012, facing extradition to Sweden, he was granted political asylum by Ecuador and took refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador, London.

On 11 January 2018, it was announced that Assange had held Ecuadorian citizenship since 12 December 2017.[3]

Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno said on 27 July 2018 that he had begun talks with British authorities to withdraw the asylum for Assange.[4] On 11 April 2019, Ecuador withdrew Assange's asylum and he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police shortly afterwards.[5] His lawyers said they will fight extradition to the United States.[6]

In November 2019, it was reported that Assange is in bad health, has depression and "could die in prison" if not hospitalized.[7][8]

The extradition to the United States hearing (a pre-trial discussion in a court) for Assange began in London on February 24, 2020. The next set of hearings is scheduled for May.[9]