The Assange Story. WikiLeaks founder’s journey from whistleblowing hero to exile

The fate of Julian #Assange will soon be decided, as he prepares to fight for his freedom in a landmark extradition hearing in London. The US wants to get its hands on the #WikiLeaks founder in what the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture called "the collective persecution" by a group of "democratic" states. If convicted, Assange could face decades in a US jail. In April 2019, Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy and sent to Belmarsh Prison for breaching his bail terms.

Through WikiLeaks, Julian Assange published a trove of classified documents on the powerful elite, including war crimes committed by the military on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and embarrassing details from politicians' emails.

The Assange Story pieces together accounts from Assange's friends, family and former colleagues to build up a clearer understanding of the personality and motivation in the man behind what's been called the 'biggest leaks in intelligence history'.

Formative years in Australia
02:24 Introduction to an underground hacking community
04:41 First hacking escapades
06:28 ‘Live dangerously’ and relationship with father

WikiLeaks
09:31 'Undoubtedly a war crime’: Collateral Murder footage in Iraq
14:36 Julian Assange’s rise to global fame
19:26 ‘That’s the power of WikiLeaks’
22:40 #Cablegate

Sexual assault allegation in Sweden
25:58 ‘It's understandable that he would be attractive to young women.’
28:05 It was unprotected, but consensual sex
29:30 ‘I think that if Julian went to Sweden at that point he would have been extradited’
30:07 Smear campaign

The Embassy chapter
33:17 WikiLeaks HQ at Ellingham Hall
35:55 ‘I realised that I'd just lost my bail money.’
36:33 The Ecuadorian Embassy in London
40:36 How the Democratic National Committee (#DNC) removed Bernie #Sanders to secure #Hillary Clinton’s nomination for the 2016 US presidential election

No longer welcome
42:56 Election in Ecuador
43:49 ‘The Moreno government was determined that they had to get rid of him and turned his life into hell’
46:43 ‘He looked very old, not at all youthful anymore.’

Belmarsh and US extradition request
47:41 HM Belmarsh Prison – place for ‘murderers, terrorists and brutal people’
50:08 US espionage charges
52:00 ‘Every journalist in the United States should feel an cold icy hand running down their spine.’

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