Who is Julian Assange?

The 47-year-old Australian is the authoritative founder of the WikiLeaks revelation platform (see below). He studied mathematics, physics and computer science in Melbourne. Under the pseudonym "Mendax" - the Latin word for "lying" - he became a successful hacker and cracked the websites of NASA and the Pentagon.

Since WikiLeaks published explosive US documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010, Assange feared being extradited to the United States. After Sweden initiated a preliminary investigation into rape and sexual abuse in 2010, Sweden turned to the police in the UK. Assange was released under conditions, but then applied for asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012.

What is Wikileaks?

WikiLeaks is a revelation platform of political activists on the Internet. The site caused a sensation for the first time in 2010. At that time, the platform published hundreds of thousands of mostly secret US documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The documents came in part from the then US soldiers and whistleblower Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning). At the time, SPIEGEL and other international media also gained access to documents and evaluated them (read more here).

In the hot phase of the 2016 US election campaign, the platform was criticized for publicizing e-mails from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. US authorities suspect that hackers linked to Russia's intelligence service leaked the material to WikiLeaks.

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Julian Assange: The WikiLeaks founder in pictures

Why was Assange arrested right now?

The reasons are varied and complex. Observers consider it partially advanced.

The Ecuadorian government canceled the diplomatic asylum Assanges on the grounds that it violated the conditions imposed on it. Then it evidently came to a chain reaction. The British police said the ambassador had invited her to arrest her at the embassy. The allegation of the British police: Assange should have escaped the justice. Later, the police said that the 47-year-old had also been arrested on behalf of the US authorities. This shows that the case is complicated.

The changed attitude of Ecuador had long since become apparent - and with it the chance of a possible arrest.

The press conference by WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson on Wednesday spoke in London. There he explained that Julian Assange had been spied on at the embassy on a large scale. The extent reminded him of "The Truman Show," said Hrafnsson. Accordingly, video and audio recordings were made in the Ecuadorian embassy. WikiLeaks has recently discovered this, says Hrafnsson.

WikiLeaks recently accused the Ecuadorian government more and more of putting Assange under pressure to leave the embassy.

Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has been trying to improve relations with the US since taking office in 2017. Below him, the behavior changes completely in the case of Assange. In March 2018, Ecuadorian diplomats cut Assange's Internet connection and put a jammer down to prevent his communication with the outside world.

Predecessor Rafael Correa, on the other hand, had followed a much more US-critical course - and granted Assange protection in the embassy.

What threatens him now?

US Justice accuses Assange of plotting with whistleblower Manning. Assange is accused of helping Manning crack a password on a government computer network, a statement released Thursday by the Department of Justice on the US extradition request to Britain.

If Assange is extradited to the US, he faces a life imprisonment. The UK said that the WikiLeaks founder will not be extradited to the US if he faces the death penalty there. That applies "under all circumstances". Assange wants to defend himself according to his lawyer against the extradition.

What is the ratio of Assange and WikiLeaks to Donald Trump?

There is only one indirect connection: WikiLeaks was last in focus because the revelation website published stolen e-mails from the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential campaign.

After Trump was elected US president, the base of the WikiLeaks supporters crumbled; Leftist and liberal sympathizers of the revelation platform criticized Assange for supporting the populist Trump, at least indirectly, by dismantling Clinton. The US Democrats accused him of releasing hacked material from Russian intelligence agents on WikiLeaks. There was no proof for that.

Even in the beginning, Assange had vague hopes that Trump in the White House would be more likely to get out of the embassy in the foreseeable future. However, the right-wing hardliners Trump called into his cabinet wanted to make an example of the founder of WikiLeaks, as a deterrent to other possible whistleblowers.

SPIEGEL TV about hunting for Julian Assange (05.12.2010)