Where is Julian Assange located? Biography

Journalist, programmer, founder of the site WikiLeaks Julian Paul Assange (Julian Paul Assange) was born July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

When he was one year old, his mother married the director of a traveling theater. The family led a nomadic lifestyle. When Julian Assange was eight years old, his mother separated from her husband and began dating the musician. They had a son, but it turned out that the new husband is a member of the "Family" sect, in which newborns were taken from their mothers. Therefore, before Julian was 16 years old, he, along with his mother and half-brother, was in constant travel. He was unable to receive a systematic secondary education. Julian Assange studied at 37 schools and several universities, including the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University in Canberra (Australian National University), but did not graduate from a single institution of higher education.

Assange was fond of programming from an early age. At the age of 16, he received his first computer and began working on networks that predated the Internet. Soon Julian became what was later called hackers, he opened the websites of organizations, publishing information that was not intended for the general public. Together with his comrades, Assange created the organization of hackers Worms Against Nuclear Killers - Worms Against Nuclear Killers. In their work, they were guided by a kind of code of hackers around the world: do not damage systems, but share information.

In 1991, Assange, along with friends, penetrated the computer system of the telecommunications corporation Nortel, was calculated and put on trial. The investigation into the case lasted several years and ended with a fine.

After that, Julian Assange changed several professions related to information technology, was the author of a number of programs related to network security and routing, and even for some time was a computer security consultant.

In 1997 he co-authored Underground: Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier with Australian journalist Soulette Dreyfus.

In 1996, Assange first mentioned the Leaks project in public correspondence, later he acquired the leaks.org domain, but later wrote that he did not find a use for it.

In the same years, he was an activist and founder of the Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection organization with his mother, which was engaged in exposing corruption in Australian health and social protection organizations.

In 2000, he called himself President of the Australian Institute for Collaborative Research.

Loud scandal around WikiLeaks. The documents, posted on WikiLeaks on November 29, 2010, contained, in particular, very unflattering remarks about world leaders. As noted on the site, more than 250 thousand published files - this is the largest collection of confidential documents ever in the history of public access.

In August 2010, Assange came to Sweden when the American authorities became interested in him. Here he is. In the same month, an investigation against Assange began in Sweden after two women told the police that they allegedly were Assange. He was interrogated and pleaded not guilty. The preliminary investigation was terminated, but soon resumed again. In November 2010, a court in Stockholm issued an arrest warrant for Assange. November 20th he December 7, Assange by the London police after voluntarily reported to the police station. December 16 London High Court out of jail on £240,000 bail pending Sweden's extradition request.

On June 19, 2012, it became known that Assange came to the Ecuadorian embassy in London and applied to the Ecuadorian authorities for political asylum due to fears of his extradition by the Swedish authorities to the United States in connection with his activities in WikiLeaks. Since the filing of Assange's application. On August 16 of the same year, the head of the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador stated that his country. In December 2017, he

In August 2015, the Swedish prosecutor's office reported that three of the four charges against Assange were behind the statute of limitations. Until August 17, 2020, Assange will be suspected of only one count, which concerns rape with less aggravating circumstances.

At the end of 2015, a bilateral agreement on legal assistance came into force between Sweden and Ecuador, which is hiding in the embassy of the founder of WikiLeaks.

On May 19, 2017, it became known that the Swedish prosecutor's office had closed the investigation into the case of Assange, who was suspected of rape in 2010. The London police released a statement warning that if Assange left the embassy, ​​he would be arrested again. The reason for the arrest in London will be a still valid warrant issued by the Westminster Magistrates' Court after the founder of the scandalous website on June 29, 2012.

In February 2018, Judge of the London Borough of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

At the end of March 2018, the government of Ecuador. According to the authorities of Ecuador, Assange's behavior and messages on social networks jeopardize the country's good relations with the UK, EU countries and other countries of the world.

During the years spent within the walls of the embassy, ​​Assange never went outside, except for a few speeches on the balcony. For all the time he

Lawyers and supporters of the political refugee express fear for his health, which has deteriorated greatly due to the lack of fresh air, walks and sunlight.

Julian Assange was awarded an Amnesty International Award (2009) for his writing on corruption in Kenya's leadership. In 2010, Assange was voted Man of the Year by readers of the American Time magazine in an online vote. In 2011, the Sydney Peace Foundation for "exceptional courage in the defense of human rights", Australian journalists awarded WikiLeaks the Walkley Award for "outstanding contribution to journalism".

In 2013, John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono presented Julian Assange in absentia with the Courage in Art Award, which since 2009 has been awarded to artists who have maintained their independence despite government persecution.

In 2014, he won the prize of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan in the nomination "journalistic investigation".

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Julian Assange, the founder of the scandalous Internet project WikiLeaks, has become a global superstar in just a few days, whose fame is comparable to that of the largest politicians, actors or musicians. A hacker in the past and a freedom of information campaigner in the present, Assange is a perfect fit for Time magazine's Person of the Year award. The revelations published on the WikiLeaks website made the US administration nervous, declaring the possible "danger" that these publications could cause to the country's reputation.

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1. As a child, Australian citizen Julian Assange was a pretty good hacker (nickname - Mendax), helped write a book about the computer underground, and in the early 90s was sued by the Australian authorities for penetrating computer networks. Assange is the author of encryption software, one of the first port scanners, and an Internet search program, surfraw.

2. One of Assange's emails - [email protected] An archive of what he wrote before the beginning of his world fame is located at the same address as the mail.

3. The site Wikileaks, whose name can be translated as "information leaks + wiki", at the moment has nothing to do with the wiki, but is completely dedicated to leaks. They got to the site using a special form, where everyone could merge information. Assange back in 2006 introduced Wikileaks at the World Social Forum in Brazil (leftist anti-Davos). He said that at that time the site contained 1 million classified documents from around the world, and called on volunteer editors to help organize them like Wikipedia.

4. One of the founders of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, considers Assange an enemy of the American people.

5. Several influential Republican politicians called for the physical destruction of Julian Assange as a terrorist without a trial. Sarah Palin called him "an enemy agent with the blood of innocent victims on his hands." The latest series of leaks, which has already been called "Cablegate" (cable telegrams from US embassies in various countries), has led to the fact that since the end of November, the US Attorney's Office has been preparing charges of espionage against Asange.

6. The School of Diplomacy at Columbia University first sent out warnings to its graduates that quoting and linking to Wikileaks materials could threaten their careers in US government agencies. However, a day later, university officials canceled the previous message, declaring the importance of freedom of speech and Wikileaks. One of the leading professors of the institution, a specialist in the Middle East, Gary Sik, said that students who did not read the information on Wikileaks should not come to his exams.

7. The best thing that the Kiev Institute of International Relations can do is to open a special course on the study of "Cablegate" - 200 thousand telegrams ("cables") from US embassies in various countries. Perhaps, at least then, the illiterate diplomatic representatives from Ukraine, who mostly buy positions for money, will learn how to briefly and clearly prepare reports to Kiev. All other items of KIMO can be canceled: anyway, they have little to do with world diplomacy.

8. Prominent Libertarian Senator Ron Paul publicly defended Assange by making it clear that he prioritized freedom of expression over national security.

9. Julian Assange was on the international wanted list through Interpol on a recommendation from Sweden on charges of rape. After consensual sex, the victim (a well-known feminist in the country), a few days after the incident, wrote a complaint against Assange that at some point he refused to use a condom. This is considered sexual assault under Swedish law. On these charges, Assange was arrested by the British Scotland Yard. Pictured: Julian Assange inside a car surrounded by London police.

10. Shares of several large Wall Street companies declined last week. For example, Bank of America fell 10% after Assange announced it as his next target. Caustic comments from American journalists: they say, leaks about financial giants can only surprise if they talk about massacres.

11. Assange is the initiator of the "paradise for free speech" - a special system of laws to be adopted in Iceland. It will allow media outlets that register in this country to be protected by its legislation and not be afraid of prosecution for their publications in other countries of the world. Assange's key partner was Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir.

12. After the latest scandals, Jonsdottir accused Assange of a maniac and urged to step aside so as not to harm the cause of Wikileaks. In the photo: An activist speaks in support of Julian Assange.

13. In the fall of 2010, Wikileaks published the most detailed description of the war in history (the "Iraq dossier") - more than 400,000 pages of reports from the scene of military clashes. Among other things, they refer to more than 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths. Pictured: Iraqi children playing.

14. Thanks to Wikileaks, we got the opportunity to see how powerful diplomacy works in the world. In the photo: The car with the creator of the site WikiLeaks drives away from the courthouse after the meeting.

15. Thanks to Wikileaks, we have received evidence from third parties about how important the history of Ukraine is for Russia, and how much effort is being made to reduce the scale of the Holodomor. In the photo: a frame from a documentary film about the Holodomor.

16. The US State Department 2 months ago, in response to Assange's proposal, refused to help edit the telegrams in order to delete from them the names of people who could suffer for their relationship with American diplomats.

17. Instead, the US government is practically waging war to destroy Wikileaks. At the moment, Wikileaks refused to provide services: Amazon, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal payment system, Swiss Post Bank. The latter two institutions froze €100,000 in donations raised to defend Assange and maintain Wikileaks servers. In the photo: a protester against Assange's arrest put on a mask with his image.

18. On the side of Assange and Wikileaks were hackers from the site 4chan. They have already announced their intention to severely punish PayPal for shameful behavior. Soon the site of the system was attacked. The attackers took down the websites of the Swedish prosecutor's office and Post Bank, the PayPal website is working harder than usual.

19. Wikileaks has lost its name to Wikileaks.org. This happened after EasyDNS excluded him from their databases, citing a very strong DDoS attack on their servers, which could have affected their other clients. The situation was saved by Twitter and Facebook - new IP addresses and names of Wikileaks mirrors were transmitted in real time, from hand to hand, on social networks. According to rumors, at the moment there is pressure on the leadership of Twitter and Facebook in order to suspend the Wikileaks account.

20. Facebook has issued a statement that it does not yet see anything illegal on the Wikileaks page with 1,000,000 members. On Twitter, it's a bit suspicious that Wikileaks hasn't been able to trend these days.

21. Some of the Wikileaks servers, after moving from France and an unsuccessful attempt to host on Amazon, are on the sites of the Swedish provider PRQ, where they are attacked again. The provider is known for hosting the Pirate Bay and Kavkaz Center websites.

The legendary John Perry Barlow, one of the founders of Eff.org, stated that "the first major information war is happening now, the battlefield is Wikileaks, and you are the soldiers on it."

23. Methods by which the US is trying to censor the origins of Wikileaks on "Cablegate", similar to the Chinese attempts to censor the Internet. "Censors differ only in the quality of the justification for their actions in court" (c).

24. The man who helped Assange and Wikileaks to become truly world famous is Private Bradley Maning, a 21-year-old guy with huge problems in his gender identity (a transvestite who could not decide who he was by gender). He managed to copy the Afghan, Iraqi dossier and cables, and pass this information to Assange through hackers he knew. Meningo was betrayed by another ex-hacker, and now a staff informant for the FBI and one of the authors of Wired magazine, Adrian Lamo. Meningo will either be executed or imprisoned for life.

25. Umberto Eco noted about Wikileaks that according to the rules of the special services, top secret messages should contain only data known to everyone - otherwise they will not be believed. As an example, he cites a top secret cable from the US Embassy in Rome to . The information contained in it had been openly printed by NewsWeek a week before.

26. Many feel that the origins of Wikileaks are not just a giant world-class scandal. Assange, rightly or wrongly, has been compared to Luther, and Cablegate to nailing a manifesto to church doors. We won't be surprised if the whole story with Wikileaks ends with a radical restructuring of the world order. At the very least, the waves of leaks are very high: there are already high-profile resignations of politicians, the Pirate Party of Sweden has proposed an alternative, decentralized DNS-naming system, and Washington has begun to recall its diplomats.

27. Julian Asange is hardly a maniac, hungry for world fame. In fact, he went to his goal for more than 10 years (he wanted to make a site for the origins back in 1999, when he registered the name leaks.org).

What is its purpose? It seems that he seeks to greatly change, if not destroy, the existing system of government. He considers the current management system to be an authoritarian conspiracy - according to Assange, authoritarian management cannot take place in any other way than a conspiracy. As such, he seeks to destroy his enemy by leaking classified materials. As Assange argues in one of his policy papers, closed organizations suffer disproportionately from leaks than open ones. The very threat of disclosure of secrets at any time should greatly reduce their total number.

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Julian Paul Assange Born July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Australia. Australian Internet journalist and TV presenter, founder of WikiLeaks. In large volumes, he published top-secret materials about spy scandals, corruption in the highest echelons of power, war crimes and the secrets of diplomacy of the great powers.

On the maternal side, Assange comes from Scottish and Irish emigrants who arrived in Australia in the middle of the 19th century. His father was a man named John Shipton, who met Julian's mother, Christine Hawkins, at a demonstration against the Vietnam War. Their relationship ended when she became pregnant. Julian first met his father when he was 25. In 1972, his mother married traveling theater director Richard Assange, and Julian spent his childhood on the move.

In 1979, Christine broke up with Richard and began dating musician Leif Meynall (Hamilton), soon they had a son.

However, it soon turned out that the mother's new chosen one was a member of the Family sect founded by Ann Hamilton-Burn. Members of this sect give newborn babies to the founder. The mother, fearing for the fate of her son, ran away. Therefore, from 11 to 16 years old, Julian was again in constant travel.

Assange got into programming early. At 16, he bought a modem and began working on pre-Internet networks under the name Mendax. The meaning of his Internet pseudonym is related to Horace's oxymoron splendide mendax - a noble (magnificent) liar. Julian, together with his comrades, creates an organization of hackers "Worms Against Nuclear Killers" (Russian Worms against nuclear killers), in their activities they were guided by a kind of code: do not damage systems, but share information.

In 1991, Assange was then 20 years old, he and his accomplices were arrested for hacking into the central server of the Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks. After several interrogations, he pleaded guilty to all 25 counts. Assange escaped with a fine because the company suffered minor damage. Assange went to get his first higher education at the University of Melbourne, at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. However, he dropped out of school, because it seemed to him that the military were the sponsors and, as a result, the regulators of the educational process.

Some time later, he was detained on suspicion of stealing $500,000 from Citibank accounts. However, the verification of suspicions did not confirm.

Julian has gone through several IT careers, authored a number of programs related to network security (such as Rubberhose) and routing, and was even a computer security consultant for a while.

Wikileaks

In 2006, Assange founded the website Wikileaks. Realizing that he would have to deal with very sensitive materials, he decided that Sweden, known for its loyalty to journalists, would be the “home” of the main server. In December of the same year, the first material appeared on the WikiLeaks resource: "Decision of the Islamic Court of Somalia on the execution of government officials." The portal emphasized that the document may not be real, but "obtained from a serious source in US intelligence."

Assange, of course, never revealed his informants. Those, in turn, can feel completely safe. Before getting to the WikiLeaks page, the information is simultaneously duplicated on all portal servers, so it is impossible to trace it.

Assange sent to Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and The New York Times about 100,000 classified documents on the progress of the war in Afghanistan, as well as tens of thousands of documents on the war in Iraq. Some of the documents concern the execution of civilians. After the publication of some evidence, especially video information, an international scandal erupted.

Assange also stated that he had about 15,000 more secret Pentagon documents at his disposal.

In August 2010, as part of his visit to Sweden, Assange signed an agreement with the local Pirate Party to host part of the WikiLeaks servers on its sites, which will provide the project with political support on the world stage.

In July 2012, Assange announced that Wikileaks would publish about 2.4 million documents related to the conflict in Syria. According to Assange, the release of documents will help people better understand what is happening in this country.

In August 2013, WikiLeaks published links to download documents of more than 400 gigabytes, but the files are protected by a key that the project promises to make known in case of harm to any of the key figures of the organization, first of all, this security guarantee concerns Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

Criminal case against Julian Assange

On August 20, 2010, an arrest warrant for Assange was issued in Sweden. According to The Local newspaper, Assange is suspected of sexual harassment and rape.

Specifically, the Swedish police suspect Assange of having: had sexual intercourse with a Swedish woman (her name is not disclosed, she is referred to as “Miss A” in the documents) without a condom, despite her requests; had sexual intercourse with "Miss W", without a condom, while she was sleeping.

In the vast majority of European countries, such actions, which are ethically very dubious, nevertheless do not constitute a crime. However, in Sweden they are subject to criminal prosecution. There is a version in the press that the simple jealousy of two rivals: feminist Anna Ardin and photographer Sofia Vilen could become the motive for filing an application against Assange. The reason for this assumption was the assertion of one of these women that Assange entered into a relationship with her, without mentioning a parallel affair with another.

Assange himself denied everything and wrote a letter to one of the Stockholm newspapers, in which he complained that these accusations appeared for a reason and were connected with publications on WikiLeaks of the so-called. "Afghan dossier". The next day, Swedish authorities dropped the rape charges against Julian.

On September 1, 2010, the rape case was reopened by the Swedish authorities. Prosecutor Marianne Ny said: "There are reasons to believe that the crime was committed after all." On November 18, 2010, a Swedish court issued an arrest warrant for the founder of Wikileaks. The next day, Assange's Swedish lawyer appealed the court's decision. Assange moved to London. On December 1, 2010, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest, he was put on the international wanted list.

On December 7, 2010, Assange was arrested after voluntarily reporting to the police station. The basis for the arrest was a warrant issued by the Swedish prosecutor's office. Assange's defense insists that the extradition request was politically motivated.

Assange created the website www.swedenversusassange.com (the translation of the site's name is "Sweden vs. Assange"), where he sets out his vision of the entire trial, gives arguments in his defense and opinions of influential experts on the course of the case and the actions of the Swedish and British authorities.

On December 14, 2010, he was released from custody by a London court on bail of £240,000, after which Assange was in the UK on bail pending trial, which took place in London on February 6-7, 2011.

On February 24, 2011, the British court decided to extradite Assange to Sweden. Rejecting the appeal, the High Court of London on November 2, 2011 upheld the decision to extradite Assange to Sweden. Assange appealed the decision to the UK Supreme Court, which upheld the extradition order in February 2012. In June 2012, the UK Supreme Court again rejected the appeal of Assange's lawyers, in which they demanded a review of the decision to extradite their client to Sweden.

To date, Assange has not been formally charged with anything. The Swedish police say they just want to interrogate Assange to clarify the circumstances of the case. Official representatives of the Ecuadorian embassy, ​​where Assange received political asylum and has been living for more than a year, offered the Swedish police to interrogate Assange in the embassy building, but were refused without explanation.

On December 6, 2010, the Swiss bank PostFinance announced the freezing of Assange's accounts. The bank's press release states that the reason for the freezing of accounts is that Assange provided the bank with false information about his place of residence.

On December 3, 2010, the international payment system PayPal blocked the WikiLeaks account, explaining its step by the fact that the payment system cannot be used to carry out illegal activities. According to the vice president of the company, this was done at the request of the US State Department.

On December 7, 2010, the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard blocked all payments to the WikiLeaks website. The press service of the European division of Visa emphasized that this step is not related to pressure exerted on the payment system by officials, and that the WikiLeaks business structure is currently being studied by lawyers for possible violations of Visa rules.

On December 9, 2010, social resources Facebook and Twitter began blocking the accounts of Assange supporters on suspicion of coordinating hacker attacks.

On May 30, 2012, the Supreme Court of England rejected the appeal for extradition to Sweden. On June 19, Assange, who was under house arrest, took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and asked the leadership of the South American country for political asylum. The police considered this a violation of the conditions of house arrest and said that he would be arrested the moment he left the embassy. However, the police cannot enter the building of the diplomatic mission, which has immunity. Assange's mother arrived in Ecuador at the end of July 2012 to personally ask the leaders of this state for political asylum for her son.

On August 16, 2012 at 13:00 London time, Ecuador officially granted Assange political asylum. All these two and a half months, Assange was on the territory of the embassy and did not leave it. Initially, it was reported that the police would storm the embassy to arrest Assange, but later British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that there would be no storming of the embassy, ​​but the authorities could take away the diplomatic status of the embassy, ​​referring to the Diplomatic Premises Act, according to which it perhaps in the case of using the territory of the embassy not for diplomatic purposes, but for sheltering a criminal.

Assange's choice of Ecuador as a hideout was not accidental, since back in 2010 the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry offered him political asylum.

On August 19, 2012, Assange delivered a 10-minute speech from a balcony on the first floor of the Ecuadorian embassy. During the speech, the London police were a few meters from him and if he appeared on the street, they would immediately be arrested.

At the embassy, ​​which is housed in an apartment building on Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, central London, Assange lives in a small room that includes a makeshift shower, a single bed, a computer, a treadmill and a sunlamp. On September 27, 2012, the United States recognized Julian Assange as an enemy of the state.

At the end of September 2012, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Assange spoke about the conditions of his life at the embassy. The small studio room has a mattress, bookshelves, a round table, leather chairs, a treadmill, and a fluorescent lamp. He compared his stay at the embassy with living on a space station. Assange works 17 hours a day, runs several kilometers on the track, boxing, doing gymnastics, watching movies and TV shows. The lack of sunlight makes up for vitamin D and an ultraviolet lamp. He eats fresh food brought to him by friends and embassy staff.

In the summer of 2013, Time magazine reporter Michael Gruenwald posted on Twitter that he was eager to write "an article in support of a drone attack that neutralizes Julian Assange." Time magazine denied his statement, calling the entry offensive. The WikiLeaks portal team sent an official letter to the editorial office with a request to fire Grunwald.

The websites of organizations and individuals that somehow contributed to the arrest of Assange and WikiLeaks accounts were subjected to massive cyber attacks:

1.PayPal payment system - the site is blocked and the electronic payment processing system is broken.
2. MasterCard payment system - similar.
3. Visa payment system - similarly.
4.Bank PostFinance - violation of the ability to carry out online banking.
5. The site of Senator Joe Lieberman (the first government-level site) - who lobbied for the adoption of a law according to which Assange can be held accountable on charges of espionage.
6. The page and personal e-mail of the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who called for the physical elimination of Assange.
7.Website of a lawyer representing 2 Swedes, on charges of raping whom Assange was arrested.
8. Website of the Swedish government.
9. The site of the Swedish prosecutor's office, at the request of which Assange was arrested.
10. Portal of the online store Amazon.com - on the servers of which WikiLeaks worked until December 8, 2010, after which it was evicted.

Through the Twitter community, an appeal was issued by the Anonymous hacker group, which unites several thousand members who called themselves "enemies of the enemies of WikiLeaks", according to which the organization claimed responsibility for the cyber attacks carried out and announced that it was planning new attacks against any individuals and organizations that were somehow involved to detain Assange or obstruct the work of WikiLeaks, including on the websites of Interpol, the governments of the United States, France and Australia, the Moneybookers payment system, and also, again, on the Amazon.com website. “As an organization, we have always taken an uncompromising stance against those who interfere with free speech on the Internet. We feel that WikiLeaks is doing something more important than leaking documents."

Since April 17, 2012, Assange has hosted a program called The World Tomorrow on the Russia Today TV channel (in English, Spanish and Arabic). The last episode aired on July 3rd.

On March 17, 2012, Assange tweeted on Twitter that he would consider running for the Australian Senate in 2013.

In 2008, Assange received an award from Amnesty International for his publication of materials on corruption in Kenya's leadership.

In 2010, The Guardian ranked Julian Assange at number 58 on its list of the 100 most influential people in the media. At the end of 2010, Assange was voted Person of the Year by the readers of Time magazine, the magazine itself gave this title to Mark Zuckerberg. In 2010, Vedomosti awarded Assange the title of "Private Person of the Year". In 2011, the Australian magazine Zoo Weekly named Assange "the worst Australian of the year" (Un-Australian of the year 2011). It is believed that this annual ranking is somewhat frivolous.

In May 2011, the Sydney Peace Foundation presented Assange with a gold medal for "extraordinary courage in the defense of human rights". On February 3, 2013, Yoko Ono (the widow of John Lennon) presented Assange with an award for courage in the arts. On June 24, 2013 he became a laureate of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan in the nomination "journalistic investigation".

In February 2012, the 500th episode of the cult American animated series The Simpsons aired, where Assange voiced himself.

In 2012, the Australian feature film The Julian Assange Story was released about the beginning of Assange's activities, his hero was played by Alex Williams.

In 2012, the short film "Julian" directed by Matthew Moore, produced in Australia, was released - about the school years of Julian's life (1981, 9 years old, 4th grade of elementary school), when his character traits already appeared: a passionate desire to tell the truth about everything leads to the first serious conflicts. His role was played by Ed Oxenbold, who was nominated for this role in the category "Best Actor" by the Australian Film Institute. The film was awarded the Crystal Globe for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012.

In 2013, the feature film "The Fifth Estate" (Belgium-USA-UK) was shot, about the life of Assange and the activities of the WikiLeaks project. He is played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 2013, the documentary "Mediastan" was released in response to the Hollywood thriller "The Fifth Estate".

In September 2014, Assange took part as a model in the fashion show of Benjamin Westwood, the son of the famous designer Vivienne Westwood. The show took place at the Embassy of Ecuador.

On January 22, 2016, the UN Working Group on Personal Integrity sent a document to the governments of the United Kingdom and Sweden, asking for an assessment of the situation in order to guarantee Assange's safety and security, to grant the right to freedom of movement and to ensure that his rights are respected in accordance with international standards governing the procedure for imprisonment, and also pay compensation.

On February 5, 2016, the Swedish government stated that it did not agree with the decision of the working group, and that Assange had voluntarily decided to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy and had the opportunity to leave it at any time.

In December 2018, the President of Ecuador received written assurances from the UK that Assange would not be extradited to the United States after his arrest.

On April 11, 2019, the Ecuadorian authorities deprived Assange of asylum at their embassy in the UK. British police officers entered the embassy grounds to take Assange with them at the ambassador's invitation. , where he will remain before appearing before Westminster Magistrates' Court on a charge of failing to appear in court. The arrest was made on a warrant issued by the Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 29, 2012.

Julian Assange Height: 188 centimeters

Julian Assange Personal Life:

Julian Assange was married once. From his ex-wife Teresa (they married when they were 16), he has a son, Daniel, born in 1989. Julian broke up with Teresa shortly before his arrest. He himself raised Daniel as a single father for 14 years. After that, Julian left and now practically does not communicate with his son, but he does not hold a grudge against him and supports his activities.

In 2006, Julian had a daughter from an unknown woman.

Multiple sources say that Julian has at least four children (he was present at the birth of three), but in 2011 he told his biographer Andrew O'Hagan that Daniel was his only child.

Australian TV presenter and Internet journalist Julian Assange (photo) is a vivid example of an individual who cares about the fate of mankind. He was one of the first daredevils who made information about top-secret materials available to the people, spoke in detail about spy scandals and war crimes of the great powers of the world, and publicized numerous cases of corruption in the highest strata of power. For this, he was persecuted, put on the international wanted list, repeatedly accused, arrested and tried.

Who is Julian Assange? How did a simple journalist from Australia become the most influential person in the international media? What goals does he pursue? Who does Assange Julian work for? Where is he now? Read about this and much more in the article.

One such

Despite all the persecution and threats from the secret services and other secret structures of the world, Julian Assange continues to implement what, most likely, no one else can do except him. This man is an example of inexhaustible courage and confidence. Only a person with a heightened sense of justice and a lack of fear is capable of what Julian Assange did. The biography of this journalist shows that a sense of duty to humanity has always been above all for him.

Childhood and early years

Assange Julian, whose biography is full of struggle for the truth, was born in the northeast of Australia in the city of Townsville on July 3, 1971. Julian's parents, John Shipton and Christine Hawkins, met at a popular demonstration against the war in Vietnam. The boy's childhood passed without a father, as he and his mother broke up before he was born. Julian's first acquaintance with dad happened when he was already twenty-five.

In 1972, when her son was barely a year old, Christine Hawkins married Richard Assange, who worked as a traveling theater director. Since then, they have lived in constant movement. In 1979, Julian's mother separated from Assange and began a relationship with musician Hamilton Leif. Soon Julian had a brother. As it turned out later, her chosen one is a member of the Family sect, where it is customary to give newborn children to its leader Anne Hamilton-Burn. Fearing that her son would be taken away from her, the mother ran away. So another five years of young Julian were wandering around the world.

Dangerous infatuation

When Julian was 16, he was introduced to programming. Together with like-minded friends, he created an organization of hackers, which he called "Worms Against Nuclear Killers". Members of the organization were guided by a code: to share information without damaging systems.

In 1991, Julian, along with his associates, was arrested for hacking into the central data archive of the Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks. Assange did not deny what he had done and paid the company a small fine - the damage was insignificant.

When a young hacker entered the University of Melbourne for higher education, he discovered that all processes in the educational institution were controlled by the military, and therefore did not continue his studies.

Some time later, Julian Assange was accused of stealing five hundred thousand dollars from the Citibank account, but during the check, the suspicions were not confirmed.

"WikiLeaks"

Julian Assange in 2006 became the creator of the so-called "truth factory" - a site called WikiLeaks. Sweden, the most loyal country in relation to journalists, was chosen as the place where the main server of the resource will be based. The first material that appeared on WikiLeaks was about Somalia's decision to execute government officials.

Later, other secret information began to appear on Assange's resource: about military operations in Iran and Afghanistan, as well as secret Pentagon documents. In addition to documentary materials, videos of the execution of civilians were published, which led to an international scandal.

In October 2010, more than four hundred documents relating to military operations in Iraq were posted on the site.

In 2012, materials appeared on Wikileaks that testify to the real state of affairs in Syria. U.S. government blames army private for leak There is speculation that while Manning was working as an analyst in Iraq, he brought a CD of music to the office and recorded on it an archive of top-secret documents, including footage of the shelling of journalists. He subsequently gave this disc to Assange for publication on WikiLeaks. It is not known for certain whether this was actually the case, because the resource team never reveals informants, worrying about their safety. It is almost impossible to trace the source, since the information is duplicated simultaneously on all the resource's servers before it gets to the Wikileaks page.

Assange Julian. Biography. persecution

The administration of US President Barack Obama has severely criticized the owners of WikiLeaks for publishing classified Syrian material. For their own security, Assange's team posted on the site links to secret documents totaling four hundred gigabytes, password-protected. WikiLeaks announced that they would remove the protection, and the information would be known to the whole world if any of the key figures of the organization were harmed.

With the growing popularity of the Wikileaks resource, the interest in the personality of its founder from the side of the special services also grew. In August 2010, Assange was accused of sexual harassment in Sweden, but the charges were dropped the day after the "Afghan dossier" was published on WikiLeaks.

In September of the same year, the Swedish authorities again accused Assange of a failed rape. In November, the court ordered Julian's arrest, but his lawyer appealed the decision. The defendant moved to London, and in December Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest, and Assange was put on the international wanted list.

On December 7, Julian himself appeared at the station and was arrested. The basis for his arrest was a warrant issued by the Swedish prosecutor's office. Assange's lawyer explained the request for the extradition of his client with political motives.

A week later, on December 14, Assange was released from custody after posting a bail of 240,000 pounds. Before the trial, which was to take place on February 6, 2011, Julian Assange was in London out of the country.

The court's decision

In the end, the London court decided to extradite Julian to Sweden, despite the fact that Assange's lawyers tried several times to appeal this decision, because no official charges were brought against him. The Swedish authorities claim that Julian Assange just want to interrogate and find out all the circumstances of the case. But the founder of Wikileaks himself fears that the Swedish authorities will extradite him to the United States.

In December 2010, it became known that all bank accounts and accounts in Assange's international payment systems were frozen, and the accounts of all Wikileaks employees on the Facebook and Twitter social networks were blocked. In September 2012, the United States declared Julian Assange an enemy of the country.

Political asylum in Ecuador

The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador in 2010 offered Assange to grant him political asylum. In August 2012, he took advantage of their offer and took refuge in the embassy of this country in London. The police considered this a violation of the agreements and said that Assange would be arrested as soon as he left the embassy.

Julian Assange has been on the grounds of the Ecuadorian embassy in London for a year and a half now. There he lives in a small room that has a bed, bookshelves, a makeshift shower, a round table, a computer, a UV lamp, and a treadmill. Assange compares his residence in the embassy to being on a space station. Julian makes up for the lack of sunlight with an ultraviolet lamp and vitamin D intake. Food is brought to him by embassy staff and friends.

Julian Assange feels well today, works seventeen hours a day, works out on a treadmill, speaks to his like-minded people, and receives guests. But the British government has already cost a pretty penny 20 months of careful surveillance of Assange - his stay in the Ecuadorian embassy has already cost taxpayers eight million dollars. It can be assumed that Assange will not come to Sweden voluntarily. And if he stays in the embassy until the statute of limitations expires (2022), it could cost the UK more than sixty million dollars.

Public reaction to the arrest of Julian Assange

Members of the Anonymous community, who call themselves "Enemies of Wikileaks Enemies", announced on Twitter that they are taking responsibility for the cyberattacks of all those who in one way or another contributed to the arrest of Julian Assange. Among the Internet resources that were subjected to cyberattacks were: Interpol website, the website of the governments of Sweden, the United States, Australia and France, the Amazon.com platform, on whose servers Wikileaks worked for some time, and was subsequently evicted, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa payment systems, the website of the Swedish prosecutor's office and other resources and accounts all those who participated in or contributed to the arrest of Assange.

Autobiography of Julian Assange

According to the author, writing the book was a forced measure due to the financial difficulties of his team. It was necessary to reimburse the huge costs of lawyers in the fight for justice. He expected such a literary work to be expensive, and he was right. He managed to sell the rights to publish the book for a million pounds.

The autobiography, to the surprise of Julian himself, turned out to be very dramatic. When Julian Assange read the first draft of the book, he decided to cancel its publication because it was too personal. The author went against the rules and said that he wanted to terminate the contract with the publishing house, despite the fact that he had already been paid a rather large advance, which he also managed to spend. The book was already expected to be released in 38 countries around the world. Therefore, the management of the publishing house took a desperate step - to repay in the same coin. Julian Assange's autobiography was published without his consent.

The film "The Fifth Estate"

Recently, a film about the creator of Wikileaks, which was created by Entertainment Weekly, was released. Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, after reading the script for the film, called it an outright big-budget lie. According to them, such films are made by order of corrupt structures for a specific purpose and contain incorrect, distorted and dangerous information. In The Fifth Estate, Assange saw anti-Iranian propaganda. The film begins with a scene indicating that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The action then shifts to Cairo, where an Iranian nuclear scientist informs a CIA agent that the bomb will be tested in six months. But US intelligence agencies have long confirmed the absence of nuclear weapons in Iran, as Julian Assange noted.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the film. In addition to him, such actors as Anthony Mackie, Daniel Brühl, Alicia Vikander participate in the film. The journalistic investigations of Luke Harding and David Lee and the autobiographical story of a hacker who worked for WikiLeaks, Daniel Domstein-Berg, were used as the basis for the film. The film was directed by Bill Condon.

Personal life

The infamous hacker Julian Assange married Teresa at the age of 16, who gave birth to his son Daniel in 1989. For fourteen years, Julian raised the child himself. Now he rarely sees his son, but he does not take offense at his father, but supports him in everything. Shortly before his arrest, Julian officially divorced Teresa.

Childhood and family of Julian Assange

Like all later life, Julian Assange's childhood was nomadic. The boy was born in Australia. There is no information about the real father. When Julian was still a baby, his mother married the head of a traveling theater. Since then, the family did not stay in one place for a long time.

A few years later, Assange's mother remarried, this time to a musician. She gave birth to the child. After the birth, it turned out that her husband was a member of a sect that took away newborn children from their parents. Because of this, for many years, Julian, along with his mother and half-brother, was forced to hide, often change their place of residence.

Julian Assange: From hero to outcast

With such a lifestyle, there was no question of systemic learning. Moreover, Assange's mother had progressive views. She considered the school a relic of the past and an educator of unnecessary authorities. The boy studied independently, showed interest in the exact sciences. As a teenager, Julian decided on priorities and chose computer science. In order to buy him a computer, the family moved to less comfortable housing.

Assange does not have a higher education diploma, although he studied at several universities in different countries. But he did not finish any educational institution.

Programmer and hacker Julian Assange, his story

Assange created the first hacker organization called "Worms Against Nuclear Killers" even before the widespread use of the Internet. Once in the early 90s, Julian was accused of attacking a computer system. He pleaded guilty and got off with a fine.

Assange is also known for his legitimate programming activities. He wrote computer programs related to security. Administered Australia's first internet hosting sites.

Together with his mother, he organized a project to protect children. They exposed corrupt social welfare and health organizations.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

Julian Assange's main project was the WikiLeaks website. Initially, the purpose of the portal was to expose corruption in some countries, including Russia. But soon the first high-profile document was published on the site - a decree on the execution of officials in Somalia. The WikiLeaks team wrote that they were not sure of the authenticity of the document, but the publication made a lot of noise.

Since then, the site and the figure of its founder have been in the spotlight of the world community. Assange published hundreds of revealing documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The WikiLeaks team released to the public a video of the execution of civilians and journalists during the Iraq conflict. These shots caused a huge resonance.

Julian Assange addressed the President of the United States from the balcony...

The site is made in such a way that it is impossible to trace the path of information receipt. Assange tried to keep his sources as secret as possible. Sweden, which is known for its liberal attitude towards journalists, was chosen as the site for hosting the site. By agreement with the provider, the site was protected from blocking at the request of the courts. In 2013, hundreds of gigabytes of classified documents were uploaded to the site. However, access to them is password protected. The access code will be released if anything happens to WikiLeaks executives and project whistleblowers. The list of protected figures includes former CIA agent Edward Snowden.

For his work, Julian Assange has been awarded several journalistic awards and is included in the list of the most influential people in the world. In the United States, Assange has been declared an enemy of the state.

Persecution of Julian Assange

Julian always paid attention to his safety. He often changed his place of residence, moved from country to country, stayed with friends. Despite all the precautions in 2010, he still came to the attention of law enforcement agencies.


In Sweden, he was charged with sexual assault. Two women were recognized as victims in the case, their names were not disclosed. The court decided to arrest Assange, but he was in London at that time. The founder of WikiLeaks was put on the international wanted list. The English court decided to extradite Assange, but the lawyers failed to appeal this verdict to higher authorities.

Where is Julian Assange today?

From arrest and extradition, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. The authorities of this country have long offered the founder of WikiLeaks political asylum. The access of British law enforcement officers to the territory of the embassy is closed due to the diplomatic status. The British authorities threatened to take the embassy by storm, but were forced to abandon these intentions. In 2012, Assange delivered a speech from the balcony of the embassy. British policemen were on duty a few meters away, but they could not arrest him.

It is known that comfortable conditions have been created in Assange's room. In addition to the necessary furniture, there are sports equipment and a home solarium.

Julian Assange's personal life

Little is known about Assange's personal life. He was officially married once and has a son. His wife left him after the site hacking scandal in the early 90s. A few years later, he was able to sue her child. In this, Assange was helped by his mother. According to the American magazine, the lawsuit was difficult. It was during it that Assange turned gray.

Exclusive interview. Julian Assange

Information periodically appeared in the press about Assange's new companions, as well as about his children. There was no official confirmation of this. Only once did Assange vaguely write on his blog that he might have another child. The fact that Assange has become a cult figure of our time confirms the interest of directors in him. In recent years, the series “The Julian Assange Story” and the film “The Fifth Estate” have been shot about the founder of WikiLeaks, the main character was played by the popular actor Benedict Cumberbatch. In addition, the character Julian Assange appears in the famous mutt series The Simpsons.

Julian himself starred in films, TV series and documentary projects. Everywhere he plays the same role - the founder of the website WikiLeaks. He also had to act as a producer, screenwriter and director.

Since 2012, Assange has been the host of the Russian channel Russia Today, aimed at a foreign audience.

In 2016, the documentary film "The Meaning of Life" with the participation of Julian Assange should be released.

In 1998, Assange went on a trip around the world. In Russia, he traveled along the Trans-Siberian Railway.