Made secret documents public: Who is Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and what has he done?

Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Australia, and is a former hacker, investigative journalist and activist. He showed an interest in computers and hacking from a young age.

He studied at various universities, including the University of Melbourne, without graduating. In 2006, he founded the whistleblower platform Wikileaks with anonymous partners. The platform published sensitive information collected by whistleblowers and journalists.

Assange became known worldwide through the publication of US military and diplomatic documents in 2010. These included a video of a deadly helicopter attack in Baghdad. The publications, including the “Cablegate” documents, showed, among other things, human rights violations and diplomatic assessments by the US.

For the USA, the publications represent an act of espionage. Therefore, Assange made early efforts to avoid extradition to the USA. From 2012, he found refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted political asylum.

However, after a change of power in Ecuador and numerous harassments, he was extradited to Great Britain in 2019 and arrested. Shortly afterwards, the USA initiated official extradition proceedings. Since then, Assange has been imprisoned in a maximum security prison. Assange was released on Monday, June 24, 2024. Away from the public eye, the American judiciary and the Australian agreed on a deal. Turning point in the legal drama – Wikileaks founder is free – alleged Assange plane landed in Bangkok.

Julian Assange is also personally criticized. In 2010, he was accused of rape and sexual harassment by two Swedish women, but the charges were never brought to trial. Details of the lawsuit were later rewritten and the case was dropped in 2017.

He is also accused of being close to Russia. Shortly before the 2016 US presidential election, Wikileaks published emails from the Democratic Party, which was interpreted as an attempt to influence Donald Trump. Critics claim that the emails came from the Russian secret service, which Assange denies.

He is also accused of having published documents that were primarily critical of the US and of having withheld Russian intelligence activities. A data leak at Wikileaks during “Cablegate” led to unredacted information, including the names of informants, becoming public.