Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks in UK prison for breaking bail

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was on Wednesday sentenced to 50 weeks prison term by a London court for breaking bail to enter the Ecuadorean embassy seven years ago.

Judge Deborah Taylor said Assange had exploited his privileged position to flout the law and express his disdain for British justice.

Julian Assange came into the limelight in 2010, when WikiLeaks published thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents handed to it by the rogue US Army serviceperson Chelsea Manning. The leaks also included a chilling POV video of a US Apache helicopter in Iraq gunning down 12 people, including two Reuters journalists.

Last month, Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorean embassy and charged by the United States for one of the biggest ever leaks of classified information. He was convicted last month of skipping bail in 2012 after an extradition order to Sweden over an allegation of rape.

Explained | How Julian Assange landed in Ecuadorian embassy, how his situation changed

In a letter that was read out in court by his lawyer Mark Summers, Assange said he “apologise(s) unreservedly to those who consider I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case”. “I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances. I did at the time what I thought was best.”

Summers told the court that Assange had “strongly held fears” in 2012 that he would be sent from Sweden to the United States and ultimately to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.

Summers cited the arrest and treatment of Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data while she was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Just hours after Assange was removed from the Ecuadorean embassy on April 11, U.S. prosecutors said they had charged Assange with conspiracy in trying to access a classified U.S. government computer with Manning in 2010.

(Inputs from Reuters)