Julian Assange appeared in a London court by videolink from a high-security prison on Thursday as his battle against extradition to the United States on a computer hacking conspiracy charge got underway.
But to hear Assange's attorney tell it, the whistleblower skipped out on his bail because he didn't want to be extradited to the U.S. The WikiLeaks founder is perhaps most well-known for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange was convicted of breaching his bail conditions after entering the Ecuadorian embassy while wanted over allegations of sexual offences in Sweden, which he denies.
Assange was also arrested on behalf of the United States, which is charging him with offences relating to the publishing of sensitive U.S. military documents, leaked by Chelsea Manning.
Mr Assange was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier this month after seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where the activist had sought asylum.
USA authorities claim Assange worked in tandem with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break a classified government computer.
His lawyer described Assange's nearly seven years in the Ecuadoran Embassy as a virtual incarceration, in cramped housing, with no access to a courtyard or garden and under constant monitoring - conditions he called "circumstances of pain and oppression". Assange appeared before a United Kingdom court this morning and received close to the maximum sentence, but may only serve half of his 50-week sentence after other factors like "time served" are taken into account.
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WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said on Wednesday that the extradition battle was "a question of life and death" for Assange.
Appearing by videolink from Belmarsh prison, Assange said: "I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many, many awards and protected many, many people". "I won't surrender to the US for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected lives", Assange told the court, according to atweet from a USA Today correspondent.
Julian Assange faces up to a year in prison.
Sweden discontinued its sex crimes investigation against Assange in 2017. American authorities have charged Assange with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system.
Yesterday, in mitigation for Assange, Mark Summers QC told the court his client had been "gripped" by fears of extradition to the United States over the years because of his work with WikiLeaks.
She said that it had cost taxpayers £16 million (S$28.4 million) to ensure that Assange was arrested when he left the embassy. "Assange was knowingly receiving such classified records from Manning for the objective of publicly disclosing them on the WikiLeaks website". But after his arrest in London last month, Swedish prosecutors said they were considering reopening the investigation.
The case will return to Westminster Magistrates Court later this month.
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