Who is Julian Assange and why is he facing extradition?

Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, will have to wait until 20 May to find out whether he will be extradited to the US.

The UK courts had agreed to send Mr Assange to the US to be tried for disclosing military secrets, but he asked the High Court for permission to appeal against that decision.

Mr Assange gained a reputation for computer programming as a teenager.

In 1995, he was fined for hacking offences in a court in his native country, Australia, and only avoided a prison sentence because he promised not to do it again.

In 2006, Mr Assange founded the Wikileaks website. It claims to have published more than ten million documents, including many confidential or restricted official reports related to war, spying and corruption.

In 2010, it released a video from a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

It also published thousands of confidential documents supplied by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

These suggested that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.

In 2019, the US Department of Justice described the leaks as "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States".

Lawyers for the US authorities said publishing the information had put named individuals in Afghanistan and Iraq at "risk of serious harm, torture or even death".

Mr Assange insisted that the files exposed serious abuses by US armed forces, and that the case against him was politically motivated.

He was accused of conspiring to break into its military databases to acquire sensitive information, and was charged with 18 offences.

The US authorities began extradition proceedings to bring Mr Assange to the US.

If convicted, his lawyers say he faces up to 175 years in jail. However the US government says a sentence of between four and six years is more likely.

The 2019 US extradition request was granted after a series of court hearings, but Mr Assange has spent several years fighting to overturn the decision.

He was sent to London's high security Belmarsh prison, for breaching bail conditions in a separate case. Mr Assange has been kept there while the US extradition case proceeds, because of his history of absconding.

In 2021, the High Court ruled that he should be extradited, dismissing claims that his poor mental health meant he might take his own life in a US jail.

In 2022, the Supreme Court upheld that decision and then-Home Secretary, Priti Patel, confirmed the extradition order.

However, Mr Assange returned to the High Court in February 2024 to ask permission to appeal against Ms Patel's decision and to challenge the original 2021 court ruling.

His supporters said it might be his last legal avenue.

On 26 March, the court said it would delay its ruling until 20 May, and asked the US authorities to provide a number of assurances about Mr Assange's treatment:

The court said if those assurances were not given, Mr Assange would be allowed to appeal against the extradition order.

However, judges rejected Mr Assange's arguments that he was being prosecuted because of his political opinions.

Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mr Assange in 2010, accusing him of having raped one woman and molested another while in the country.

He said the claims were "without basis".

Sweden asked the UK to extradite Mr Assange, who was arrested and remanded on bail.

Two years of legal battles followed, but in 2012, the UK Supreme Court ruled that he should be extradited to Sweden for questioning.

However, he went on the run and sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy instead, claiming the Swedish case would lead to him being sent to the US. This was granted by the country's then president, Rafael Correa.

Mr Assange spent seven years in the embassy, and was regularly visited by celebrities including the singer Lady Gaga and the actor Pamela Anderson.

In April 2019, Ecuador's new president Lenin Moreno ordered Mr Assange to leave the embassy because of his "discourteous and aggressive behaviour".

Mr Assange was arrested inside the embassy by British police, and then tried for not surrendering to the courts to be extradited to Sweden, which was a breach of his bail conditions. He was given a 50-week prison sentence.

In November 2019, the Swedish authorities dropped their case against Mr Assange because too much time had passed since the alleged offences.

Mr Assange married his long-time partner, lawyer Stella Moris, inside Belmarsh prison in 2022.

The couple began their relationship in 2015, and have two children together, fathered while he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Ms Assange wore a wedding dress designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood, who has campaigned against Mr Assange's extradition.

Both their children attended the ceremony, along with Mr Assange's father and brother.