Siapa
Julian Assange
Computer Programmer,
Journalist (1971–)
Julian Assange came to
international attention as the founder of the whistle-blowing website
WikiLeaks.
Who Is Julian Assange?
Born
in 1971 in Townsville, Australia, Julian Assange used his genius IQ to hack
into the databases of many high profile organizations. In 2006, Assange began
work on WikiLeaks, a website intended to collect and share confidential
information on an international scale, and he earned the Time magazine "Person
of the Year" title in 2010. Seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden over
sexual assault allegations, Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador
and holed up at the country's embassy in London in 2012. In 2016, his work
again drew international attention when WikiLeaks published thousands of emails
from U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic
National Committee. After his asylum was rescinded in April 2019, Assange was
indicted in the U.S. for violating the Espionage Act.
Early Life
Journalist,
computer programmer and activist Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971, in
Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Assange had an unusual childhood, as he
spent some of his early years traveling around with his mother, Christine, and
his stepfather, Brett Assange. The couple worked together to put on theatrical
productions. Brett Assange later described Julian as a "sharp kid who
always fought for the underdog."
The
relationship between Brett and Christine later soured, but Assange and his
mother continued to live a transient lifestyle. With all of the moving around,
Assange ended up attending roughly 37 different schools growing up, and was
frequently homeschooled.
Founding of WikiLeaks
Assange
discovered his passion for computers as a teenager. At the age of 16, he got
his first computer as a gift from his mother. Before long, he developed a
talent for hacking into computer systems. His 1991 break-in to the master
terminal for Nortel, a telecommunications company, got him in trouble. Assange
was charged with more than 30 counts of hacking in Australia, but he got off
the hook with only a fine for damages.
Assange
continued to pursue a career as a computer programmer and software developer.
An intelligent mind, he studied mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He
dropped out without finishing his degree, later claiming that he left the
university for moral reasons; Assange objected to other students working on
computer projects for the military.
In
2006, Assange began work on WikiLeaks, a website intended to collect and share
confidential information on an international scale. The site officially
launched in 2007 and it was run out of Sweden at the time because of the
country's strong laws protecting a person's anonymity. Later that year,
WikiLeaks released a U.S. military manual that provided detailed information on
the Guantanamo detention center. WikiLeaks also shared emails from then-vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin that it received
from an anonymous source in September 2008.
Sexual Assault Controversy
In
early December 2010, Assange discovered that he had other legal problems to
worry about. Since early August, he had been under investigation by the Swedish
police for allegations that included two counts of sexual molestation, one
count of illegal coercion, and one count of rape. After a European Arrest
Warrant was issued by Swedish authorities on December 6, Assange turned himself
in to the London police.
Following
a series of extradition hearings in early 2011 to appeal the warrant, Assange
learned on November 2, 2011, that the High Court dismissed his appeal. Still on
conditional bail, Assange made plans to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court.
Political Asylum at London's Ecuadorean Embassy
According
to a New York Times
article, Assange came to the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June 2012, seeking
to avoid extradition to Sweden. That August, Assange was granted political
asylum by the Ecuadorean government, which, according to the Times, "protects Mr.
Assange from British arrest, but only on Ecuadorean territory, leaving him
vulnerable if he tries to leave the embassy to head to an airport or train
station."
The
article went on to say that the decision "cited the possibility that Mr.
Assange could face 'political persecution' or be sent to the United States to
face the death penalty," putting further strain on the relationship
between Ecuador and Britain, and instigating a rebuttal from the Swedish
government.
In
August 2015 the lesser sexual assault allegations from 2010 — with the
exception of rape — were dropped due to statute of limitation violations
by Swedish prosecutors. The statue of limitations on the rape allegations will
expire in 2020.
In
February 2016, a United Nations panel determined that Assange had been arbitrarily
detained, and recommended his release and compensation for deprivation of
liberty. However, both the Swedish and British governments rejected those
findings as non-binding, and reiterated that Assange would be arrested if he
left the Ecuadorian embassy.
On
May 19, 2017, Sweden said it would drop its rape investigation of Julian
Assange. “While today was an important victory and important vindication, the
road is far from over,” he told reporters from the Ecuadorian Embassy in
London. “The war, the proper war, is just commencing.”
Assange
was granted Ecuadorian citizenship in December 2017, but his relationship with
his adopted country soon soured. In March 2018, the government cut off his
internet access on the grounds that his actions endangered "the good
relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of
the states of the European Union, and other nations."
Influencing the 2016 U.S. Presidential Race
Assange
and WikiLeaks returned to the headlines during the summer of 2016 as the U.S.
presidential race was narrowing to two main candidates, Democrat Hillary
Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. In early July,
WikiLeaks released more than 1,200 emails from Clinton's private server during
her tenure as secretary of state. Later in the month, WikiLeaks released an
additional round of emails from the Democratic National Committee that
indicated an effort to undermine Clinton's primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, leading to the
resignation of DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
In
October, WikiLeaks unveiled more than 2,000 emails from Clinton campaign chair
John Podesta, which included excerpts from speeches to Wall Street banks. By
this point, U.S. government officials had gone public with the belief that
Russian agents had hacked into DNC servers and supplied the emails to
WikiLeaks, though Assange repeatedly insisted that was not the case.
On
the eve of the election, Assange released a statement in which he declared no
"personal desire to influence the outcome," noting that he never
received documents from the Trump campaign to publish. "Irrespective of
the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election," he wrote, "the
real victor is the U.S. public which is better informed as a result of our
work." Shortly afterward, Trump was declared the winner of the election.
Arrest and Indictment
In
April 2019, after Ecuador announced the withdrawal of Assange's asylum, the
WikiLeaks founder was arrested at the London embassy. Shortly afterward, it was
announced that U.S. authorities had charged Assange with conspiring with former
Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a
classified government computer at the Pentagon.
On
May 1, Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail back in
2012, when he found refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy.
Steeper
charges arrived on May 23, when Assange was indicted in the U.S. on 17 counts
of violating the Espionage Act for obtaining and publishing secret military and
diplomatic documents in 2010. However, the indictment raised questions about
First Amendment protections and whether investigative journalists could also
find themselves facing criminal charges.
Personal
Rumors
of a relationship between Assange and actress Pamela Anderson surfaced after the
former Baywatch
star was spotted visiting the Ecuadorian embassy in late 2016. "Julian is
trying to free the world by educating it," she later told People. "It is a
romantic struggle — I love him for this."
In
April 2017, Showtime announced that it would air the Assange documentary Risk, which
had premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival but updated with events
related to the U.S. presidential election.
Fact Check
Citation Information
Article Title
Julian
Assange Biography
Author
Biography.com
Editors
Website Name
The
Biography.com website
URL
Access Date
Publisher
A&E
Television Networks
Last Updated
May
24, 2019
Original Published Date
April
2, 2014
.
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