London court sentences Julian Assange 50 weeks jail for breaching bail

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks jail for breaching British bail conditions when he sought asylum inside the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Assange broke bail to enter the Ecuadorean embassy almost seven years ago. He was dragged out of the embassy last month and charged by the United States for one of the biggest ever leaks of classified information.

Judge Deborah Taylor said Assange had exploited his privileged position to flout the law and express his disdain for British justice.

Despite an unreserved apology to Judge Taylor and a revelation that he was suffering “moderate to severe depression’’, Assange was found guilty “at the upper level of the charge’’.

Judge Taylor was handed a letter written by Assange earlier in the morning which said: “I apologise unreservedly to those who feel I disrespected them by the way I pursued my case. I found myself struggling through terrifying circumstances … I did what I thought at the time was best.’’

But the judge said Assange had deliberately put himself out of reach, that he had a privileged position and he put himself outside the laws of the country.

In sentencing him to 50 weeks jail, she said: “it’s difficult to envisage a more serious example of this offence”, noting that he wasn’t in a prison and could have left at any time and that he hadn’t surrounded willingly.

A large crowd of protestors supporting Assange had filled the courtroom and shouted ‘’we are behind you’’. Others outside chanted “free Julian Assange’’ and waved placards. As he arrived in an armoured van, Assange pumped his fist in defiance, but in the court he was largely expressionless.

Dressed in a black suit and with a trimmed beard he looked less haggard than his aged and pale appearance when arrested inside the Ecuador embassy on April 11.

Assange,47, will tomorrow appear in another court, Westminster Magistrates court, in the first legal steps against extradition to the United States.

Assange’s lawyers say this extradition case will be an important test case as they try and prove that Assange was acting as a journalist rather than a computer hacker when publishing 750,00 classified military and diplomatic documents.