He was detained without charge for many years, but there are charges now: the US unsealed their 2018 indictment against him immediately after they coerced Ecuador into revoking his asylum in April 2019, and they added more charges a month later.

As the linked article explains, he is currently charged with 17 counts of espionage and 1 count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He remains in His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh while fighting the US's extradition request.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (9 children)

after they coerced Ecuador into revoking his asylum in April 2019

If you actually read into his time at the Ecuadorian embassy, it's pretty easy to tell that the US didn't have to coerce them to kick him out. They went out on a limb for him and he repaid their kindness by being a brat. He literally couldn't be a decent human being if his life depended on it. He essentially got kicked out for installing spyware and listening devices into the embassy's private network.

I don't think he deserves to rot in prison forever, but he hasn't made defending his prior actions any easier with recent behavior. And we're getting to the point where his past actions as a journalist are being overshadowed by his recent political and private agitations.

Again, I don't think he deserves jail time, but I don't think he's a decent person, nor a decent journalist.

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

the US didn’t have to coerce them to kick him out.

You think the $4.2B IMF loan package they got 30 days before his expulsion wasn't contingent on revoking his asylum? Here is evidence that it was, two months before it happened.

He essentially got kicked out for installing spyware and listening devices into the embassy’s private network.

What? The listening devices and hidden cameras were in fact installed by the Spanish private security company who was ostensibly working for the embassy but who it turned out was also working for the CIA, for the purpose of spying on Assange (including in the bathroom, where he would go to meet with his lawyers due to his suspicion that the other rooms had been bugged), as has been well documented in both US and Spanish courts:

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

I was talking about the incident that happened prior to the events you posted.

In 2014, the company hired to monitor Assange warned Ecuador's government that he was "intercepting and gathering information from the embassy and the people who worked there" and that he had compromised the embassy's communications system, which WikiLeaks called "an anonymous libel aligned with the current UK-US government onslaught against Mr Assange". According to El País, a November 2014 UC Global report said that a briefcase with a listening device was found in a room occupied by Assange. The UC Global report said that proved "the suspicion that he is listening in on diplomatic personnel, in this case against the ambassador and the people around him, in an effort to obtain privileged information that could be used to maintain his status in the embassy." Ambassador Falconí said Assange was evasive when asked about the briefcase.[291][292]

It was one of the first events that started to raise the hairs of people in the embassy.

As far as the imf loan, it seems pretty circumstantial. Tbh I just don't think that the new leadership wanted to continue to pay millions of dollars a year just to watch the guy stir up trouble.

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